Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

RE-RELEASED 2019 12th ANNIVERSARY EDITION with added photos and updates
Irene Spencer grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon family--the thirteenth of thirty-one children--so it was no surprise that she found herself at sixteen years of age, in a plural marriage, sharing her husband with a half-sister.Enduring abject poverty, living in isolation, and suffering the neglect of a husband with divided loyalties created unbearable conditions. Yet Irene managed to overcome hese obstacles to seek out a life that she believed would be better for her and her children. She made the bold step into the "outside world" and into a freedom she never knew existed. The details of her harrowing experience will appall, astonish, and in the end, greatly inspire. The dramatic story reveals how far religion can be stretched and abused, and how one woman and her children found their way into truch and redemption.EDITORIAL REVIEWSSHATTERED DREAMS is a masterpiece. What courage to carve out a life in a polygamist cult for twenty-eight years... Spencer's personal portrait as a long-suffering wife... is a true, heart-wrenching story, but one that is long overdue, exposing the bleak, spirit-crushing world of plural marriage. A must-read."--BUD GARDNER, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul"It's hard to tell which is more devastating in this memoir: the strains of a husband-sharing with--ultimately--nine other wives, or the unremitting poverty that came with maintaining so many households and fifty-six children. Spencer's writing is lively and full of engaging dialogue, and her life is nothing short of astonishing. Her story will be emotional and shocking, but many readers will resoate with the universal question the memoir raises how to reconcile inherited religious beliefs when they grate against social norms and the deepest desires of the heart."--Publisher's Weekly"Spencer writers grippingly... in this brave and honest book."--People magazine, 4-star review