Tara Westover's novel 'Educated' made our jaw drop

Educated, by Tara Westover

There are sections of Educated that are simply jaw-dropping – and, believe me, my jaw does not drop easily! Set in a remote rural area of Idaho, United States, Tara Westover's account of her childhood, upbringing and education is an insight into a world that is profoundly alien to anything most of us would recognise within the concepts implied by “childhood” and “parenting”.

There is love, certainly, but little nurturing, less care, and no preparation whatsoever for life in the wider world. And it is the tension between the love and the absence of other parenting duties that gives the book its central dynamic and its grip on the reader.