Tara Westover

Noe tapt og noe vunnet har fått strålende kritikker i hele verden. Boken sto på Barack Obamas sommerleseliste i 2018, den er oversatt til 26 språk og er utropt som en av årets beste bøker i alt fra Time Magazine til Vogue. Det er en gripende skildring av et ungt menneskes higen etter kunnskap, om å formes som menneske, om familie, lojalitet og å finne seg selv. Tara Westovers internasjonale bestselger er om en oppvekst langt utenom det vanlige. Det er om å forberede seg på dommedag i stedet for å pugge matte, lese historie og omgås andre barn. Det er om å leve med fluktveske i sengen, om å bli behandlet med urter når man er alvorlig syk. Familien er mormonere – de lever helt avskjermet fra samfunnet. Det er først når storebroren kommer hjem med nyheten om at det finnes en verden utenfor gården hjemme, at Tara forstår at hun må ut. Som 17-åring setter Tara bena i et klasserom for første gang. Hun har aldri hørt om holocaust eller den amerikanske borgerrettsbevegelsen. Suget etter å vite mer, lære mer, forstå mer, bringer henne videre til Harvard og Cambridge. Først da begynner hun å spørre seg selv om hun har reist for langt. Om det fortsatt finnes en vei hjem.

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists 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. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story 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.

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists 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. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story 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.