Educated by Tara Westover

person from whom freedom had to be wrested. I did not think of my brother as that person; I doubt I wil ...

Dad paid me the day before I returned to BYU. He didn’t have the money to give what he’d promis ...

“What do you think will happen if you take the pills?” he said. I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what wo ...

roommates. Robin was tall and athletic, and the first time I saw her she was wearing running shorts that were ...

The pain in my stomach intensified, burning through the night, making it impossible to sleep. I ...

When I arrived at the peak, Mother was making the Thanksgiving meal. The large oak table was covered with jars ...

“Yelling is rude,” Shawn said, again speaking to the kitchen. “You’ll stay down until you apologize.” ...

I’d made it through the frame and had taken a step into the hallway when my head shot backward. Shaw ...

I had no idea what he was talking about. — WINTER COVERED CAMPUS IN thick snow. I stayed indoors, memoriz ...

myself invincible. It was an elegant deception, a mental pirouette. The toe was not broken because it was not breakabl ...

potatoes, said, “Richard, I’ll give you next week off, paid, if you’ll use it to study them books ...

Liss,” he shouted up from the ground. “Let’s go into town.” I hopped onto the pallet and Shawn drop ...

What happens next is a blur in my memory. I see only snapshots—of the sky flipping absurdly, of fists ...

twisting marks like curled ribbons. Dad sends me home after I ruin two sheets. That night, with a ...

am. If I was larger, at that moment, I would have torn him apart. — “I DON’T KNOW WHAT you’ve done ...

On Sunday, a week later, a man at church asked me to dinner. I said no. It happened a second time a ...

I had always scoffed at the word “whore.” It sounded guttural and outmoded even to me. But even though ...

because what I wanted was to be remade. “I can help,” he said, “but you’ll need to tell me what’s both ...

I was shocked out of this resignation two weeks into the fall semester, when I awoke ...

“I don’t believe in Government grants,” I said. “Why not?” I told him what my father said. He sighed ...