Book Overview

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalist in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

THE Bossypants Book Club will be meeting on Monday, February 18, 2018 at 6:30 p.m at Nabeel’s Café (across the street from the library). Food is not provided by the library but participants are encouraged to order beverages and food.

Author at a Glance

•Tara Westover is an American author lives in the UK.

• She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom
• She received a BA from Brigham Young University in 2008
• She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009
• She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014

Author Interviews