Leaving the Witness
Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life
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Leaving the Witness
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Narrated by:
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Amber Scorah
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By:
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Amber Scorah
About this listen
"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...[Leaving the Witness] is a suture for anyone searching to reconcile their past and present selves." (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 30s, 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.
©2019 Amber Scorah (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
“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...Scorah’s prose is straightforward, and she has a winning sense of humor about how much she’s changed...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.” (Publishers Weekly)
"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.... She teaches us how integrity is determined not by assenting to the juvenile claims of fundamentalism, but by enduring the universe as we find it - breathtaking in its ecstasies and vicious in its losses - without recourse to a God. Given the enormity of her grief and the wholesale collapse of her previous belief system, the intellectual integrity that Scorah displays is nothing short of a miracle.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“À la Tara Westover’s Educated, Scorah’s pensive, ultimately liberating memoir chronicles her formative years as a Jehovah’s Witness - a 'life in waiting' that included a sham marriage, covert missionary work in China, and eventual shunning by her religious community - and captures the bewilderment of belief and the bliss of self-discovery. Writing 'stitched the narrative arc of my life back together', Scorah says; her book is a suture for anyone searching to reconcile their past and present selves.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)
What listeners say about Leaving the Witness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 12-02-21
Thank you
I was brought up a witness but left the JW faith 19years ago, however it’s still left me with lifelong guilt and niggling doubt that I’d done the wrong thing. On reading this, that has now finally gone away. Thank you Amber.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- Robert de Castel
- 27-08-19
Great Insight
A great Insight into the psychology of why someone would join a cult-and the emotional toll of leaving.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- tomomo
- 11-12-23
Great story
Amber Scorah has had an unusual and very interesting life, and she relates it and reflects on it in an honest and intelligent way. "Leaving the Witness" is not as well-written as, for example, Megan Phelps-Roper's "Unfollow", but I found it a very engaging and enjoyable read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- purplepenguin
- 19-06-19
Delightful, moving, lyrical.
This book was like a much needed friend, that stood beside me in my own exrication from the cult. It helped make the isolation and fear that is an inevitable part of any ecit journey feel less daunting and easier to bear. Her resilience, determination and love for life shines through and gave me hope. I would recommend to anyone that wants to understand the inner journey of what it's like to wake up from indoctrination, brainwashing or any other form of mind control from a group or individual.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 09-03-20
Keen Observation, awakening from indoctrination
Very well written cult survivors Bio. Amber is also extremely pleasant to listen to as a narrator and gives a lively reading.
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- Anonymous User
- 24-10-24
Courage
Having grown up and left JW myself, there were so many thoughts and feelings that ressonated so much!
Amber’s story-telling is captivating and raw. An inspiring book about breaking free and living you’r own truth, no matter how painful this beautiful and mysterious life can be…
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-06-19
Very real, honest & authentic story
This is very well written and read by the author. The experiences and situations are unique yet relatable to so many of us who are now exjws.
I think active JW’s feel that ‘apostates’ blithely give up their faith hurriedly so as to pursue ‘the things of the world’ which betrays a complete lack of insight into the very long, angst ridden process of attempting to reaffirm and strengthen our faith while painfully listening to our doubts and eventually leaving the religion behind for concrete and valid reasons.
Amber Scorah encapsulates this struggle very well while in the unique environment of a country where Watchtowers work is banned.
Excellent book which I’d recommend.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- ania
- 16-02-20
Good insightful story
Good insightful story, good writing. Incredibly brave woman who had a courage to reject everything what was known to her and start her new life on her own. I also like that at any point was she spitefull towards her ex husband or lover Jonathan. She described her life with them without being nasty and spiteful towards them. Very admirable attitude that not many people present.
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- Bookworm
- 05-02-21
Couldn't put it down!
What an amazing read. The way Amber reads this is so listenable and heartfelt. I have never heard such a deep explanation of the feeling of a grievous loss. Wonderful book, I can't recommend it highly enough and I would love a sequel
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- p fox
- 04-07-19
Not just for Ex JWs
Brilliantly narrated by the author, Leaving the Witness is a powerful and moving account of leaving a high control group, ironically in totalitarian China. Loads of insights into the country as well as the Jehovah's Witness religion. A gut punch of an ending too, after escaping the clutches of the cult. Highly recommended.
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