Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education

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From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleanera gripping memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflixs fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanies escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.

Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didnt understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty lineLand finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art Who has the right to go to college And what kind of work is valued in our culture In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of Americas educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mothers triumph against all odds.

Reviews

Captivating.Eye-opening and heartrending, [CLASS]will provide succor for readers whove faced similar hardships and essential education for anyone who hasnt. Its another stirring personal history from oneofthe foremost chroniclersof21st-century economic anxiety.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A beautiful memoir that's an honest portrayal [of] persistence and life and writing and children. Stephanie Land did the work, and it shows." -- Neil Gaiman
Select Praise for Maid:

"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work."
President Barack Obama, "Obama's 2019 Summer Reading List"

"More than any book in recent memory, Land nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of fate will push you deeper into the hole."
The Boston Globe

"Stephanie Land's memoir [Maid] is a bracing one."
The Atlantic

"An eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor."
People, Perfect for Your Book Club

"The particulars of Land's struggle are sobering, but it's the impression of precariousness that is most memorable."
The New Yorker

"[Land's] book has the needed quality of reversing the direction of the gaze. Some people who employ domestic labor will read her account. Will they see themselves in her descriptions of her clients Will they offer their employees the meager respect Land fantasizes about Land survived the hardship of her years as a maid, her body exhausted and her brain filled with bleak arithmetic, to offer her testimony. It's worth listening to."
New York Times Book Review

Author Bio

Stephanie Land is the author of the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mothers Will to Survive, called a testimonyworth listening to, by The New York Times and inspiration for the Netflix series Maid. Her work has been featured inThe New York Times, The Guardian,The Atlantic, and many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations. Find out more at @Stepville or Stepville.com.