*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).
