Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest County on Earth)

*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 â€œa deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insightâ€.*

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 Sarahâ€™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.

â€œHeartland is one of a growing number of important worksâ€”including Matthew Desmondâ€™s Evicted and Amy Goldsteinâ€™s Janesvilleâ€”that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: Americaâ€™s postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the â€˜American dreamâ€™ was used to subjugate the poor. Itâ€™s a powerful mantraâ€ *(The New York Times Book Review).
Country USA
Brand Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Paperback
ReleaseDate 2019-09-03
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781501133107

Country	USA
Brand	Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Paperback
ReleaseDate	2019-09-03
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781501133107

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest County on Earth)