Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
"Scorah's book, the bravery of which cannot be overstated, is an earnest one, fueled by a plucky humor and a can-do spirit that endears. Her tale, though an exploration of extremity, is highly readable and warm."—The New York Times Book Review
A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries.
A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture—and a whole new way of thinking—turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true.
As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness.
Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery—with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone.
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Amber Scorah. (2019). Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life. Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Amber Scorah. 2019. Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life. Penguin Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Amber Scorah, Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life. Penguin Publishing Group, 2019.
MLA Citation (style guide)Amber Scorah. Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life. Penguin Publishing Group, 2019.
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- "À la Tara Westover's Educated, Scorah's pensive, ultimately liberating memoir chronicles her formative years as a Jehovah's Witness...and captures the bewilderment of belief and the bliss of self-discovery."—O, The Oprah Magazine, Named one of "The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019"
"Scorah's book, the bravery of which cannot be overstated, is an earnest one, fueled by a plucky humor and a can-do spirit that endears. Her tale, though an exploration of extremity, is highly readable and warm."—The New York Times Book Review
A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries.
A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture—and a whole new way of thinking—turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true.
As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness.
Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery—with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone. - reviews
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Starred review from April 8, 2019
In her impressive debut, Scorah recounts her years as a Jehovah’s Witness in China, her decision to leave the faith, and her ongoing spiritual questioning. In 2005, Scorah and her husband left Vancouver for Taipei before volunteering to move to Shanghai, where being a Jehovah’s Witness could get them deported. There, they worked as English teachers and private tutors, covertly preaching their doctrines of impending apocalypse to Chinese citizens and expats they meet. Eventually, Scorah found a job working on a podcast, and through her work and interactions with a man she met online, she began to question her religion. After revealing the intimate friendship to her husband, Scorah decided she needed to leave him and was shunned by her family and friends. Scorah’s prose is straightforward, and she has a winning sense of humor about how much she’s changed: “We gave up any hope of a career all for the sake of saving these people, and goddammit—no pun intended—we were very concerned about their destruction.” Scorah provides a rare glimpse into the insular world of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and her accounts of expat life and leaving her faith should give this candid memoir wide appeal.
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April 15, 2019
Scorah, an editor at Scholastic, debuts with the story of her life in, and after, the Jehovah's Witnesses. Having been born into the church, the author went on to become one of its missionaries to China; the most fascinating portions of her memoir describe her years in Shanghai. Scorah paints the picture of an innocent and unquestioning young girl who grew up to be a more independent, yet socially impaired, adult. Following a protracted teenage tryst that caused her to be ostracized from the church for a time, she married a man she did not love and found escape and meaning as a missionary, reaching out to whomever she could find to teach Jehovah's Witness doctrine. The author is adept in her portrayals of the conflict in cultures she discovered in China and in relaying the challenges she faced as a Westerner trying to convert people in a foreign country. A lengthy online affair with a man who became driven to prove her religion wrong led Scorah to have doubts and eventually begin the process of leaving her husband and then the church--and thus most everything she had ever known. The author eventually found new work and friendships in Shanghai, and she later relocated to New York. Her work is well-written, and only occasionally does the author delve too heavy-handedly into salacious tell-all territory. Mostly, she provides an eye-opening account of how Jehovah's Witnesses live and operate. Sadly, the tale lacks a happy ending, as the author would lose her 4-month-old son. "When I arrived at lunch [at daycare] to nurse him, he was dead," she writes in the heartbreaking final section. "No one could tell me why, or what had happened." The narrative ends on a note of near-despair, with only a glimmer of hope. "I have called a truce with the unknown," writes Scorah, "and I am learning to live with the disquiet." An intriguing read about a mysterious religion.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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June 1, 2019
A third-generation Jehovah's Witness secretly proselytizing in China, Scorah suffered a crisis of faith that led to her being shunned by friends and family. Further tragedy when she moved to New York made her actively look for meaning beyond religion. Based on a Believer article with a record number of hits and letters for the magazine; the New York Times story of her son's death received 2.2. million views in its first four days.
Copyright 1 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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June 1, 2019
Scorah, an essayist and editor for Scholastic, pens a debut chronicling her experiences as a Jehovah's Witness. The author describes her tumultuous beginnings, from an unstable home life with an alcoholic father to being ostracized as a teen for an inappropriate relationship. Along the way, she offers valuable insight into the psychosocial structure of Witness life. Scorah, influenced heavily by extended family pressure, fails to flee the institution and, instead, embraces its safety through a convenient marriage and travel to China as a missionary. Scorah finds Witnessing in China to be secretive and isolating, yet she thrives after finding employment as a podcaster. Her religious convictions falter after an involved online correspondence with a fan intensifies. Life unravels, and Scorah walks away from her loveless marriage and the Jehovah's Witnesses community, apologetically. The author's life slowly evolves, but not without further heartbreak. Scorah's closing pages fast forward to the unimaginable--the tragic death of her infant son and the pain of trying to find solace when one's faith has gone quiet. VERDICT A compelling story offering insight into the Jehovah's Witnesses, their mission work, and the hardships a former believer faces as an apostate.--Angela Forret, Clive, IA
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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"Scorah's book, the bravery of which cannot be overstated, is an earnest one, fueled by a plucky humor and a can-do spirit that endears. Her tale, though an exploration of extremity, is highly readable and warm."—The New York Times Book Review
A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries.
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