A college education

“YOU CAN CALL IT A TRANSFORMATION. A METAMORPHOSIS.

DECEIT. BETRAYAL. I CALL IT AN EDUCATION.”

One of the most important books of the year according to The New York Times, which has already captivated more than half a million readers.

Born in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover grew up in harmony with a grand nature and subjected to the laws established by her father, a fundamentalist Mormon convinced that the end of the world is imminent. Neither Tara nor her siblings go to school or see a doctor when they are sick. They all work with their father, and her mother is a healer and the only midwife in the area.

Tara has a talent: singing, and an obsession: knowing. She sets foot in a classroom for the first time at the age of seventeen: she doesn't know that there have been two world wars, nor the exact date of her birth (she has no documents). She soon discovers that education is the only way to escape her home. Despite starting from scratch, she gathers the strength to prepare for the university entrance exam, cross the ocean, and graduate from Cambridge, even if it means breaking ties with her family.

Westover has written an extraordinary story – her own story – a formidable epic, heartbreaking and inspiring, about the possibility of seeing life through other eyes, and of changing, which has become a resounding publishing success.

Critics have said...

“This fascinating autobiography is a terrifying journey into the most extreme regions of the human being. A family that lives installed in delirium and an adolescent who manages to escape the hell of her childhood thanks to study. Epic and magnificent.”

Rosa Montero

“The best-selling book on The New York Times list that behaves, at the same time, like a novel and a memoir. [...] The reading is scorching, largely because of the underlying thesis of how knowledge allows us to modify and correct experience, [...] every word on these pages is a hammer blow.”

Karina Sainz Borgo, Zenda Libros

“Tara Westover has written a unique book, [...] a complete, beautiful and shocking exposé. [...] This story is so great, so unique and at the same time so vital that it becomes a vibrant lesson in overcoming. From isolation, oppression and ignorance, towards the construction of a great personality.”

Berna González Harbour, El País

“Westover rebuilt herself through education, but in her cold sweetness beat years of savage isolation that she analyzes with clarity.”

Ima Sanchís, La Vanguardia

“It traps you, embraces you, hits you and moves you. However different your life may be from Tara's, her story speaks to each of us. It's impossible to emerge unscathed from reading it.”

Javier Ruescas

“A brave, well-written and highly intense book.”

Javier Cercas

“A raw account in which she shows her metamorphosis.”

Luigi Benedicto Borges, El Mundo

“The testimony of someone who, to tell her story, leaves her soul on the barbed wire of her own biography.”

Karina Sainz Borgo, Zenda Libros

“A memoir that captivates not so much for its heroic story of overcoming, which it is, but for the clarity with which it dissects its own life.”

Elena Hevia, El Periódico

“Every word on these pages is a hammer blow to the nail of a tragedy. A version of the American dream, told from its deepest and most violent cracks. [...] Whoever reads the pages of Educated will witness a testimony ripped out alive.”

Karina Sainz Borgo, Vozpópuli

“One of the season's big publishing phenomena.”

Library Journal

“A surprising tale of overcoming and personal fulfillment.”

Kirkus Reviews

“A searing debut.”

Publishers Weekly

“Westover manages to convey tenderness and savage honesty, sparing no one, not even herself. [...] Educated is more than a success story.”

Amanda Winterroth, Booklist