Maid: Books to TV Adaptations

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

"What this book does well is illuminate the struggles of poverty and single-motherhood, the unrelenting frustration of having no safety net, the ways in which our society is systemically designed to keep impoverished people mired in poverty, the indignity of poverty by way of unmovable bureaucracy, and people's lousy attitudes toward poor people... Land's prose is vivid and engaging... [A] tightly-focused, well-written memoir... an incredibly worthwhile read."
—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger: A Memoir
"An eye-opening exploration of poverty in America."—Bustle
"[Land's] book has the needed quality of reversing thedirection of the gaze. Some people who employ domestic labor will read heraccount. Will they see themselves in her descriptions of her clients? Will theyoffer their employees the meager respect Land fantasizes about? Land survivedthe hardship of her years as a maid, her body exhausted and her brain filledwith bleak arithmetic, to offer her testimony. It's worth listening to."
—New York Times Book Review

"Marry the evocative first person narrative ofEducatedwith the kind of social criticism seen inNickel and Dimedand you'll get a sense of the remarkable book you hold in your hands. InMaid, Stephanie Land, a gifted storyteller with an eye for details you'll never forget, exposes what it's like to exist in America as a single mother, working herself sick cleaning our dirty toilets, one missed paycheck away from destitution. It's a perspective we seldom see represented firsthand-and one we so desperately need right now. Timely, urgent, and unforgettable, this is memoir at its very best."—Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
"For readers who believe individuals living below the poverty line are lazy and/or intellectually challenged, this memoir is a stark, necessary corrective.... [T]he narrative also offers a powerful argument for increasing government benefits for the working poor during an era when most benefits are being slashed.... An important memoir that should be required reading for anyone who has never struggled with poverty."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Maidprovides an important look at themorass of difficulties faced by the working poor."—Elle Magazine

"As a solo mom and former house cleaner, this brave book resonated with me on a very deep level. We live in a world where the solo mother is an incomplete story: adrift in the world without a partner, without support, without a grounding, centering (male) force. But women have been doing this since the dawn of time, and Stephanie Land is one of millions of solo moms forced to get blood from stone. She is at once an old and new kind of American hero. This memoir of resilience and love has never been more necessary."—Domenica Ruta, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You
"[A] heartfelt and powerful debut memoir.... Land's love for her daughter... shines brightly through the pages of this beautiful, uplifting story of resilience and survival."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Stephanie Land's heartrending book,Maid, provides a trenchant reminder that something is amiss with the American Dream and gives voice to the millions of 'working poor' toiling in a country that needs them but doesn't want to see them. A sad and hopeful tale of being on the outside looking in, the author makes us wonder how'd we fare scrubbing and vacuuming away the detritus of an affluence that always seems beyond reach."—Steve Dublanica, New York Times bestselling author of Waiter Rant
"[A] vivid and visceral yet nearly unrelenting memoir... Her journey offers an illuminating read that should inspire outrage, hope, and change."—Library Journal
"Raw...Land [is] a gifted storyteller...Offers moments of levity...[Maid] shows we need to create an economy in which singlemotherhood and the risk of poverty do not go hand in hand."—Ms. Magazine

"A heartfelt memoir."
—Harvard Business Review

"Maiddelves into her time working for the upper middle class in the service industry, and in it, uncovers the true strength of the human spirit."—San Diego Entertainer, Books to Kick Off Your New Year

"It is with beautiful prose that Land chronicles her time working as a housekeeper to make ends meet...Captur[es] the experience of hardworking Americans who make little money and are often invisible to their employers."—Boston.com, 20 Books to Read in 2019

"A striking portrait of single-working-motherhood...an intimate look at the day-to-day reality of poverty in the United States...Land gives shape tothe depleting anxiety and isolation that accompany motherhood in poverty formillions of Americans."—The Nation

"Thebook, with its unfussy prose and clear voice, holds you. It's one woman's storyof inching out of the dirt and how the middle class turns a blind eye to thepoverty lurking just a few rungs below -- and it's one worth reading."—The Washington Post

"Fascinating...Communicates clearly the challenges of a marginal existence as a single mother living in poverty as she sought to provide a stable and predictable home for her daughter in a situation that was anything but stable and predictable."—The Columbus Dispatch

"Takes readers inside the gritty, unglamorous life of the underpaid, overworked people who serve the upper-middle class for a living."—Parade
"In a country whose frayed safety net gets less policy attention than the marginal tax rate, Land is the anomaly not only in surviving to tell the tale - and in telling it with such compelling economy."—Vulture, 8 New Books You Should Read this January

"Land's memoir forces readers to examine their implicitjudgments about what we mean by the value of hard work in America and societalexpectations of motherhood."—Electric Lit

"Honest, unapologetic, and beautifully written."—Hello Giggles

"Tells an honest story many are too afraid to examine."—SheKnows.com
"A moving, intimate, essential account of life in poverty."
—Entertainment Weekly, Must List

"In a perfect world,Maidwould become requiredreading in schools across the country."—North Bay Bohemian

"The next time you hear someone say they think poor people are lazy, hand them a copy ofMaid."—Minneapolis Star-Tribune