Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her 'head-for-the-hills bag'.

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece “ 1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”- The New Yorker “Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

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