Hillbilly Elegy

A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

By: J. D. Vance

Narrated by: J. D. Vance

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER / OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD

THE AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT'S ORIGIN STORY

‘Essential reading for this moment in history’ New York Times

'You will not read a more important book about America this year' Economist

‘Brilliant … offers an acute insight into the reasons voters have put their trust in Trump’ Observer

J. D. Vance grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks, hillbillies or white trash.

In this deeply moving memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America’s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, ‘dirt poor and in love’, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. How Vance beat the odds to graduate from Yale Law School. And how America came to abandon and then condescend to its white working classes, until they reached breaking point.

‘A beautiful memoir but it is equally a work of cultural criticism about white working-class America … Vance offers a compelling explanation for why it’s so hard for someone who grew up the way he did to make it … a riveting book’ Wall Street Journal

** Now a major-motion picture directed by Ron Howard and starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and Gabriel Basso **

©2016 J. D. Vance (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Wonderfully honest & insightful

An honest, insightful and deeply personal account of life growing up as a Hillbilly.

The book provides insight to the very real problems socio-economic problems experienced in an entertaining way, with humour.

An excellent body of work superbly narrated by the author.

The strangely familiar reality of the American dream

If your like me and your searching for answers about today's world and how to succeed , then J.D Vance takes you closer to the door step of your enlightenment and freedom.

The book is a memoir of an American white man that is rarely shared that transcends race and unites the poor/working class and their struggle for upward social mobility that is strangely familiar.

What I thought I knew...

..about 'hillbillys' I now know could be written on the back of a postage stamp.
Besides filling in so many blanks and fleshing out the bare bones lives of mountain folk in a way that was both interesting and informative, JD told his personal story with a sincerity and forthrightness that is mirrored in his guest appearances on longform podcasts.
No affectations, no hyperbole, no candy coating.
It is heartening to realise we are finally going to unvarnished and genuine grassroots people such as this in the White House to reinforce those of his ilk already in Congress and the Senate.
#Vance2028

Fabulous mix of autobiography and social analysis read by the author

I always enjoy autobiographies read by the author and this was an exceptionally good one. Amazing life story surviving incredible poverty and family challenges but also some robust thinking and analysis about what makes a difference and how things work.

Wonderful book.

This book gave me a better understanding and I g of my own life and failures. It is more a self help kind of book as one of literary significance. Well written and it answers so many of the questions to socio-economic problems we are trying to solve.