Educated: A Memoir
In 2018, Penguin Random House published Westover's Educated: A Memoir, which tells the story of her struggle to reconcile her desire for education and autonomy with her family's rigid ideology and isolated life.[6][14][15][16][17] The coming-of-age story was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, and was positively reviewed by the New York Times,[18][19] The Atlantic Monthly,[20] USA Today,[21] Vogue,[22][23] and The Economist,[24] among others.
As of February 2020, Educated has spent two years in hardcover on the New York Times bestseller list[25] and is being translated into 45 languages.[26] The book was voted the No. 1 Library Reads pick by American librarians, and in August 2019, it had been checked out more frequently than any other book through all New York Public Library's 88 branches.[27] As of December 2020, Educated has sold more than 8 million copies.[28]
Through their attorney, the family has disputed some elements of Westover's book, including her suggestion that her father may have bipolar disorder and that her mother may have suffered a brain injury that resulted in reduced motor skills.[29][30]
