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THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER

A BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK

Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE

‘One of the best books I have ever read . . . unbelievably moving’ Elizabeth Day
‘An extraordinary story, beautifully told’ Louise O’Neill
‘A memoir to stand alongside the classics . . . compelling and joyous’ Sunday Times

Tara Westover grew up preparing for the end of the world. She was never put in school, never taken to the doctor. She did not even have a birth certificate until she was nine years old.

At sixteen, to escape her father’s radicalism and a violent older brother, Tara left home. What followed was a struggle for self-invention, a journey that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.

‘It will make your heart soar’ Guardian
‘Jaw-dropping and inspiring, everyone should read this book’ Stylist
‘Absolutely superb . . . so gripping I could hardly breathe’ Sophie Hannah

Publisher Review

“A memoir to stand alongside classics by the likes of Jeanette Winterson and Lorna Sage . . . a compelling and ultimately joyous account of self-determination” * Sunday Times * “[A] fascinating, jaw-dropping memoir” — Nina Stibbe * Observer * “[A] superb memoir… Westover’s journey from a remote corner of the American west to one of the world’s grandest seats of learning is extraordinary . . . Her story, of fighting to be herself, is as old as the hills she came from, but Westover gives us such a fresh, absorbing take that it deserves to bring her own private Idaho into the bestseller lists, book groups and, eventually, cinemas.” * The Times * “Brilliantly recounts her journey towards knowledge and enlightenment” — Blake Morrison * Guardian * “Her story is remarkable, as each extreme anecdote described in tidy prose attests. That someone who grew up in her circumstances could achieve as much as she has is astonishing . . . The central tension she wrestles with throughout her book is how to be true to herself without alienating her family. Her upbringing was extraordinary, but that struggle is not.” * The Economist * “This memoir [is] one of the wisest accounts of family love and betrayal that I’ve read” * Mail on Sunday * “[An] astonishing autobiography” — Antony Beevor “Heartbreaking in its honesty…[an] intelligent and powerful memoir” * Literary Review * “An astonishing and uplifting story about the transformative power of education” * Mail on Sunday, 2018 Cultural Highlights * “Educated is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. What a writer, what a thinker and what a gift for the rest of us to be able to read her story. Unbelievably moving and profoundly thought-provoking.” — Elizabeth Day “Educated is an unflinching account of love and brutality, of the strength of blood ties and the power of imagination, and of a young woman whose intellect, self-knowledge and courage illuminate every page. There are passages so painfully vivid that they sear themselves into the memory, yet Westover is never prurient or punitive: even when writing from the depths, she does so with compassion and grace. Both the book and its writer are remarkable in every respect” — Sarah Perry, bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT “Westover has a story to tell that shouldn’t be ignored” * The Guardian *