Heartland

A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

    • 4.1 • 193 Ratings
    • $12.99
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

*Finalist for the National Book Award*
*Finalist for the Kirkus Prize*
*Instant New York Times Bestseller*

*Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly*

An essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country and “a deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight”.*

Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland.

During Sarah’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country.

Beautifully written, in a distinctive voice, Heartland combines personal narrative with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, challenging the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less.

Heartland is one of a growing number of important works—including Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville—that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: America’s postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the ‘American dream’ was used to subjugate the poor. It’s a powerful mantra” *(The New York Times Book Review).

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2018
September 18
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
304
Pages
PUBLISHER
Scribner
SELLER
SIMON AND SCHUSTER DIGITAL SALES INC
SIZE
11.7
MB

Customer Reviews

perolsa ,

Wonderful!

I loved this book. It really opened my eyes. I love her courageous mindset to reach her goals against many road blocks. What an inspiring story.

hotstuff fl ,

Heartland

I feel the book is too long and repetitive! I read most of the book then skipped to nearer the end & realized to my dismay I should not have wasted my money. Hotshots

Fred Saberian ,

A must Read

This book is a fantastic and real life depiction of what it is like growing up poor in rural America. It effectively debunks the idea of the America Dream and sheds like on systematic poverty, racism and structureal discriminataion existing in socio econoic sytem in the US. One of the best books I ever read! Thanks Sarah!

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