Brothers and Sisters - by Tara Westover (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A remarkable memoir about siblings and the power of stories both to liberate and to tyrannize--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Educated.

I've been called a liar so many times it feels like my name.

Tara Westover grew up at the base of a mountain in Idaho. Then she left the mountain and wrote the story. She wrote about being kept out of school and working in her father's junkyard, the family's preparations for the End of Days, and the confusion she felt when an older brother became violent. When she was thirty-one, she published the story.

The world believed her, but her parents hired a lawyer. What followed was a battle over the past. Who gets to say what happened?

Westover was able to write the story because two of her brothers helped her. They vindicated her memories and affirmed her right to say what happened. "There's a gift siblings can give to one another," Westover writes. "It's the gift of a witness."

But the gift didn't last. After the book was published, it became a phenomenon, and within weeks, her brothers began to deny events they had once confirmed. Or they confirmed the events but denied their meaning. Perhaps there hadn't been any violence, or perhaps the violence had been mild. Westover was believed by millions, but she was not believed by her own family.

Brothers and Sisters is the story of what comes after the telling. Of what it means to step into the world knowing you will outlive the family that made you.

About the Author

Tara Westover is an American historian and memoirist. Her first book, Educated, was a finalist for a number of national awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The New York Times named Educated one of the 10 Best Books of 2018, and the American Booksellers Association voted Educated the Nonfiction Book of the Year. In 2019, Time magazine named Westover one of the 100 Most Influential People. Westover holds a PhD in intellectual history from Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 2019 she was the Rosenthal Writer in Residence at Harvard University. In 2023, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden.