Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

(Hardback)

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Description

In this vivid coming-of-age memoir, Rob Henderson recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities - and what he learnt from seeing life from both sides of the tracks.

Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. He was wrong: tragedy, poverty and violence marked his adolescent years.

An unflinching portrait of shattered families, desperation, and determination, Troubled recounts how Henderson eventually managed to find an escape route through the military, which led to an academic career at Yale and Cambridge. As he reflects on the fate of many of his friends - drugs, death, prison - Henderson never escapes the feeling of being on the outside looking in, or a sense that his academic achievements are hollow compared to the love and protection that comes from stable family life. He dissects the hypocrisies of contemporary social class and shows how the most privileged among us benefit from a set of 'luxury beliefs' that actively harm the most vulnerable.

Rave Reader Reviews

'Eye-opening and heart-breaking'

'Inspiring'

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'Powerful and thought-provoking'

Reviews

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'Trenchant and remarkable' - The Bookseller

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'Rob Henderson's journey through foster care, the military, and, later, at Yale and Cambridge, is truly extraordinary. In Troubled he uses his own fascinating personal story to explore social class, status, his 'luxury beliefs' framework, and the ways educated elites think about complex social issues. Gripping, moving, and intellectually satisfying, Troubled is a superb book' - Will Storr, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Status Game

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'A vital and moving story of success against the odds, with an important social message: as a society, we neglect the importance of a stable and loving family life at our peril' - James Bloodworth, author of Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain

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'Rob Henderson had an incredibly challenging upbringing - raised as a foster kid in circumstances most children (thankfully) never know. His educational achievements are extraordinary. What's more extraordinary is that he's a keen observer of both the world he came from and the world he now inhabits. He has learned the importance of family despite never having one of his own, and he delivers that message in a gripping way. Read this book. It will challenge both your heart and mind. A rare feat' - J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy

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'Rob Henderson's brilliant reported memoir reveals a resounding antidote to a life of chaos and instability for boys and young men: love' - Melanie Notkin, author of Otherhood: Modern Women Finding a New Kind of Happiness

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Author Bio

Rob Henderson grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and the rural town of Red Bluff, California. He joined the Air Force at the age of seventeen. After his enlistment, he graduated from Yale University with a BS in psychology and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Once described as 'self-made' by the New York Times, Rob received a PhD in psychology from St. Catharines College, Cambridge in 2022. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and the New York Post, among other outlets. Robs popular Substack newsletter is sent each week to more than forty thousand subscribers.