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Tara Westover

Biography

Tara Westover

Tara Westover was born in Idaho in 1986. She received her BA from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded her PhD in history in 2014. EDUCATED is her first book.

Tara Westover

Books by Tara Westover

by Tara Westover - Memoir, Nonfiction

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her 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. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she had traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

written by Tara Westover, read by Julia Whelan - Memoir, Nonfiction

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho and isolated from mainstream society, she lacked any formal education. So she 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.