Dirt: Growing Strong Roots in What Makes the Broken Beautiful

Dirt is a story about the places where we start. From a single-wide trailer in the mountains of rural West Virginia to the halls of Yale Law School, Mary Marantz's story is one of remembering our roots while turning our faces to the sky. From growing up in that trailer, where it rained just as hard inside as out and the smell of mildew hung thick in the air, Mary has known what it is to feel broken and disqualified because of the muddy scars leaving smudged fingerprints across our lives. Generations of her family lived and logged in those hauntingly treacherous woods, risking life and limb just to barely scrape by. And yet that very struggle became the redemption song God used to write a life she never dreamed of.

Mixed with warmth, wit, and the bittersweet, sometimes achingly heartbreaking places we go when we dig in instead of give up, Dirt is a story of healing. With gut-wrenching honesty and hard-won wisdom, Mary shares her story for anyone who has ever walked into the world and felt like their scars were still on display, showing that you are braver, better, and more empathetic for what you have survived. Because God does his best work in the muddy, messy, and broken--if we'll only learn to dig in.

From the Back Cover

A gripping story of roots and redemption

"Mary's story is one that will live deep in the corners of your heart forever, reminding you, through her own experiences and poignant, beautiful storytelling, that the good stuff of life is often found in the hardest circumstances."--Emily Ley, bestselling author of When Less Becomes More

"Mary Marantz is a born storyteller! If you're tired of running from your story and ready to lean into the strength it gives you, this book is for you. A triumph in every way!"--Jessica Honegger, founder of Noonday Collection and author of Imperfect Courage

"Mary's story matters because all of our stories matter. Her words reek of God's grace, glory, and goodness, and of our ability to cling to them."--Jess Connolly, author of You Are the Girl for the Job and Take It Too Far

"Marantz draws you into a moving story with plenty of space to breathe and say, 'I've felt that too.' She tells the unique story of her life in a beautifully relatable way, where you will comb through every page and be reminded: through it all, there is grace."--Morgan Harper Nichols, author of All Along You Were Blooming

"Get ready to have your heart shaken up and made better through the pages of this book. I could not put it down!"--Hannah Brencher, author of Come Matter Here and Fighting Forward