Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: The New York Times bestseller

Synopsis

Searing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.'Hough's writing will break your heart' - Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women'An edgy and unapologetic memoir in essays' - Kirkus Reviews'This moving account of resilience and hard-earned agency brims with a fresh originality' - Publishers WeeklySearing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe--to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile--but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond "The Family."Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. She's taken pilgrimages to the sights of her youth, been kept in solitary confinement, dated a lot of women, dabbled in drugs, and eventually found herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Copyright:

2021

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781529382518

Related ISBNs:

9781529382495

Publisher:

Hodder & Stoughton

Date of Addition:

08/12/22

Copyrighted By:

Lauren Hough

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Narrated By:

Cate Blanchett

Categories:

Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.