Growing Up Amish

Ira Wagler's memoir traces his journey from boyhood inside an Old Order Amish community in rural Iowa to his repeated, wrenching attempts to leave it behind. Raised in a large family bound by strict religious tradition, Wagler grew up loving the warmth and certainty of that world even as something in him chafed against its walls. The book follows him through adolescence, the freedom and confusion of Rumspringa, and the years of leaving and returning before he finally walks away for good, carrying the weight of everything he gained and gave up.

Adam Verner's narration suits the material well. His measured, unhurried delivery mirrors the quiet rhythms of Amish life, and he handles the memoir's emotional shifts without overplaying them. The audio format rewards the book's introspective pacing, letting Wagler's plainspoken prose breathe. At just under eight hours, it moves steadily without dragging, and Verner's voice carries an earnestness that keeps the story grounded in the personal rather than the pastoral.