Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look

Disillusioned and yearning for freedom, Emily Wierenga left home at age eighteen with no intention of ever returning. Broken down by organized religion, a childhood battle with anorexia, and her parents' rigidity, she set out to find God somewhere else--anywhere else. Her travels took her across Canada, Central America, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. She had no idea that her faith was waiting for her the whole time--in the place she least expected it.

Poignant and passionate, Atlas Girl is a very personal story of a universal yearning for home and the assurance that we are known, forgiven, and beloved. Readers will find in this memoir a true description of living faith as a two-way pursuit in a world fraught with distraction. Anyone who wrestles with the brokenness we find in the world will love this emotional journey into the arms of the God who heals all wounds.

From the Back Cover

Emily Wierenga left home at age eighteen with no intention of ever returning.

Broken down by organized religion, a childhood battle with anorexia, and her parents' rigidity, she set out to find God somewhere else--anywhere else. Her travels took her across three continents in buses, cars, and planes, across mountains and over deep blue seas.

What she hadn't realized was that her faith was waiting for her the whole time--in the place she least expected it.

Poignant and passionate, Atlas Girl is a deeply personal story of the yearning we all share to be truly known, entirely forgiven, and utterly loved.


"Emily shares the unexpected beauty God has created in her broken places as he's made her heart whole again, and how he can do the same for you."--Holley Gerth, bestselling author of You're Already Amazing

"Her honesty is raw, real. Her faith is hard-won. And when it finally pours out, her love--oh, her love soars off the page and makes a nest in our hearts. Brilliant and beautiful."
--Liz Curtis Higgs, bestselling author of Bad Girls of the Bible

"This isn't just a book, this is a journey. Of grief and wonder, loss and gain. Emily tells a world-spanning story that this world needs!"--Jon Acuff, New York Times bestselling author of Start

"I felt like she was giving me an atlas of my own, asking me real, important questions about my own walk through life. Her story about loss, life, and love is worth its telling."--Tsh Oxenreider, author of Notes from a Blue Bike


Emily T. Wierenga is an award-winning journalist, blogger, commissioned artist and columnist, and the author of six books, including the memoirs Atlas Girl and Making It Home. Proceeds from Emily's books benefit her nonprofit, The Lulu Tree, partnering with single mothers in the slums and villages of Africa. She lives in Alberta, Canada, with her husband and three children. To learn more, please visit www.thelulutree.com.