Preview
  • Hillbilly Elegy

  • A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
  • By: J. D. Vance
  • Narrated by: J. D. Vance
  • Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (197 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Hillbilly Elegy

By: J. D. Vance
Narrated by: J. D. Vance
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $23.22

Buy for $23.22

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER / OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD

From Donald Trump's 2024 Vice-Presidential Candidate

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

‘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
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

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

‘Powerful and highly readable account of the light of the poor white Americans in Kentucky’ Financial Times

‘Essential reading for all yankophiles, politicians and anyone interested in how Donald Trump won over the rust belt to arrive at the White House’ Books of the Year, Sunday Times

‘The memoir gripping America … Vividly articulates the despair and disillusionment of blue-collar America’ Sunday Times

‘A tough-edged elegy for ‘white trash’ hillbilly America’ David Aaronovitch, The Times

‘America’s political system and the white working class have lost faith in each other. ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ offers a starkly honest look at what that shattering of faith feels like for a family who lived through it. You will not read a more important book about America this year’ Economist

‘Vance’s description of the culture he grew up in is essential reading for this moment in history’ David Brooks, New York Times

‘Clear-eyed and nuanced, a powerful antidote to the clamour of news’ The Times

‘With exquisite timing Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ offers something profound at this time of political populism … a great insight into Trump and Brexit’ Ian Birrell, Independent

‘I bought this to try to better understand Trump’s appeal to those white working-class people who feel left behind, but the memoir is so much more than that … It’s an important social history/commentary but also a gripping, unputdownable page-turner’ India Knight, Evening Standard

What listeners say about Hillbilly Elegy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    122
  • 4 Stars
    51
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    106
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    105
  • 4 Stars
    45
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, insightful and well written.

an inspiring story, personal and honest. Lessons we all can learn from and be inspired by.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

hilarious

hilarious but original. an ordinary story that everyone can relate to. I so recommend this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, great production

I enjoyed every aspect of this audio book.

It’s far outside my experience, but provided amazing education into the experience of Mr Vance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Honest and thought-provoking

The best feature of the book is the author's honesty in sharing his stories. While the conclusions drawn in the book are debatable, the nature of the arguments are intelligent and well-thought of, and can help drive a good conversation on what upward mobility means to those in the working class.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Engaging story with surprisingly excellent narrati

I have listened to a number of books narrated by the author, and this has perhaps the best narration of any of them. Typically, I feel like the benefits of listening to the author tell their own story more than offset their lack of polish as a narrator - but in this case there is no tradeoff, Vance is a clear spoken and engaging narrator in his own right.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

JD looks down on everyone and uses their misery for his own benefit

Poorly written and not a motivational tale but instead just his bragging about his own success.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!