Brothers and Sisters

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.