Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Stephanie Land’s Maid is a must-read of the highest order, a memoir of a single mother struggling to survive while performing the household labor that many of us take for granted. While at once deeply personal — you’ll fall hard for Stephanie and her daughter, Mia — it is also essential social commentary about how we treat the myriad domestic laborers who toil in our homes, oftentimes unseen and unappreciated. Read it alongside Nickel and Dimed or Evicted for a stunning, unforgettable look at American poverty and determination.

In a time when most in our country are falling further and further behind the ‘one percent,’ Maid tells the story of author Stephanie Land’s abrupt and unexpected slide from her middle-class upbringing to an impoverished adulthood as a single mother. As a first-person narrative window into the way increasing numbers of Americans are forced to live, Maid will strike a chord with the readership of Hillbilly Elegy and White Trash.