Holding on to Nothing: A Novel

By: Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne

Narrated by: Amanda SanFilippo

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lucy Kilgore has her bags packed for her escape from her rural Tennessee upbringing, but a drunken mistake forever tethers her to the town and one of its least-admired residents, Jeptha Taylor, who becomes the father of her child. 

Together, these two young people work to form a family, though neither has any idea how to accomplish that, and the odds are against them in a place with little to offer other than bluegrass music, tobacco fields, and a Walmart full of beer and firearms for the hunting season. 

Their path is harrowing, but Lucy and Jeptha are characters to love, and listeners will root for their success in a novel so riveting that no one will want to turn out the light until they know whether this family will survive.

In luminous prose, debut novelist Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne brings us a present-day Appalachian story in the tradition of Lee Smith, Silas House, and Ron Rash, cast without sentiment or cliché, but with a genuine and profound understanding of the place and its people

©2019 Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne (P)2019 Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne

Good But Frustrating Characters

Lucy has big plans to leave her small southern town to pursue her dreams of going to college and establishing a better life for herself. Everything changes when she ends up getting pregnant after a one night stand. We follow Lucy and Jeptha as they navigate a life together, thrown together by the pregnancy. There is a shocking twist at the end that I was not expecting and I was happy that the end of the novel was not predictable. However, I was frustrated with Lucy throughout the book and it was frustrating to read about the choices being made by the characters.

Wow!

Great book. One of the best readers I ever heard. a real tear jerker. Characters were all believable and likable. They seemed like my own friends.

I loved it to the end

It was a true to life book, no Pollyanna writing. This couple had the highs and lows, and I could barely stop it until day two, when I finished it, hoping it would go the way I thought it should.
Awesome book!

Great book

I loved this book.I can not recommend it enough. I enjoyed the narrators voice very soft ,smooth, and easy to listen too.

My goodness. One fine book.

Excellent. I’d recommend this book to anyone- particularly high school age and up. Those w some life experience may find it richer. I wish it weren’t so sad and hard, but in a similar way to how I wish life weren’t so hard. Yet, generally it where it feels true to life that it feels strong, and part of why rated so highly. It’s the best book I’ve read in a while, and will stick with me. I find myself in many characters that I wish I didn’t, and am astonished how well the author can bring to life the human condition. Normally, I have to get over the voice of the narrator in an audiobook- but this reader is superb. I hope this book is widely read, discussed, and that there are more good works to follow from author and reader if that fits their futures well.

I don’t understand all the hype

This story is nothing unique and totally predictable. I couldn’t wait for it to end. Reader has a nice voice.

Excellent

Poignant and powerful well delivered.. Was totally engrossed by this novel
Beautifully narrated atmospheric