Photographs by Richard Olsenius.
"Twenty-five years ago I invented a small town and started telling stories about it on the radio (in 'A Prairie Home Companion') and ever since then, people have asked me if it's a real town, and if it is, then where is it?
I used to tell them that it's fiction, but they were disappointed. People want stories to be true. So I started telling people that the town is in central Minnesota, near Stearns Country, up around Holdingford, not far from St Rosa and Albany and Freeport, which is sort of the truth, I guess." - Garison Keillor
This beautiful book combines text and image to reveal the real-life origins of the place where "the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children above average". Keillor meditates on the enduring culture of the country and on the years he spent there as a young writer and outsider. And a short story of Lake Wobegon, 'October', appears here for the first time in print.
Lavishly produced, with more than eighty photographs reproduced in duotone with an essay and extended captions by Keillor, this book documents the vitality of contemporary small-town life and illuminates the real Minnesota landscapes and citizens who inspired Keillor's beloved and lasting creation.
