Heartland cover art

Heartland

A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Heartland

By: Sarah Smarsh
Narrated by: Sarah Smarsh
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £11.99

Buy Now for £11.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

An eye-opening, topical, and moving memoir of one woman’s experience of working-class poverty in America.

Born a fifth-generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teenage mothers on her maternal side, Smarsh grew up in a family of labourers trapped in a cycle of poverty. She learned about hard work and also absorbed painful lessons about economic inequality, eventually coming to understand the powerful forces that have blighted the lives of poor and working-class Americans living in the heartland.

By sharing the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to consider modern-day America from a different perspective. Combining memoir with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, Heartland is a searing, uncompromising look at class, identity, and the perils of having less in a country known for its excess.

©2019 Sarah Smarsh (P)2019 Simon and Schuster Economic Conditions Economics Rural Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology Memoir Economic disparity

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Heat and Light cover art
I'm Glad My Mom Died cover art
The Boy Kings of Texas cover art
The Olive Picker cover art
My Vanishing Country cover art
No One Ever Asked cover art
Wisdom of Our Fathers cover art
The Good Daughters cover art
Funny Farm cover art
Wild Swans cover art
The Color of Water cover art
The Plain Choice cover art
They Called Me Number One cover art
A Dream Called Home cover art
Etched in Sand cover art
In the Country We Love cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Now I get why poor people are split between voting Democrat and Republican. A must-listen for those still wondering why! A very human and compelling story. Delighted the author overcame her background while retaining her pride for it.

Insightful in the context of the US election 2024

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a great, powerful memoir of growing up in rural poverty. It's a really interesting format, written as a series of letters to a child she chose to not have. It describes the experience of generations of her family, the limited opportunities available to them, and what impact that had on the choices they made. It also powerfully criticises the way both liberals and conservatives view families like hers, and it's really refreshing to hear the perspective of someone's lived experience of growing up in what many would sneer at as a 'redneck' or 'hillbilly' town. A heartfelt memoir, and a critique of the myth of American dream.

Powerful memoir and critique

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.