Escaping a cloistered childhood to break free into the world

Memoir: Educated, By Tara Westover, Hutchinson, €17.55

JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy – a memoir about growing up poor in rust belt Appalachia – was the surprise political hit of 2016, selling more than a million copies and propelling its 32-year-old author into the top ranks of the US commentariat. People understood Vance’s story as an explanation for the rise of Donald Trump. If poor white people had voted en masse for a racist ...