Prologue -- No Reason -- A Nation of Families -- Scheduled Violence -- Mottled Sunlight -- Grief -- Painted Bodies and Orange Fires -- Gathering Evidence -- Think Less, Do More -- Protecting Papers -- Keeping a Respectful Distance -- Humped Floors -- A Room without Furniture -- Faith Keeps No Treasure -- Broken Things -- Hot Milk -- Hiring Help -- Perpetual Perishing -- Epiphany -- Theft -- Visitor -- Straight Flush -- Testimony -- A Private Heaven -- Work Begins -- Letter to the Editor -- Fire in the Field -- A New Song -- Finishing Up -- Snow -- Remembered Love -- Desperation -- Completing the Circle -- Family -- Envy -- Seeking Help -- Theodyssey -- Fear -- Reunion -- Don't Go That Way -- Measuring Up -- The Meaning of Truth -- A Fragile Balance -- Insurgency -- Slaughter -- Fighting Dogs -- The Thief -- The Universal Acorn -- Hunting -- Spring -- New Love -- Keeping in One's Place -- Mushrooms Are Up -- Making Bail -- The Heartland Federal Reserve -- Inside the Neighbor's House -- Trapped by the Past -- Value -- Letting Go -- Lawyers -- Resemblance -- The County Fair -- Making Other Arrangements -- Meeting at Snow Corners -- The Look of Death -- Finding July -- Selling Land -- Inside the Church -- The Funeral -- Driftless.
Summary:
Home to a few hundred people yet absent from state maps, Words, Wisconsin, comes richly to life by way of an extraordinary cast of characters. Among them, a middle-aged couple guards the family farm from the mendacious schemes of their milk cooperative; a life-long invalid finds herself crippled by her resentment of and affection for her sister; a woman of conflicting impulses and pastor of the local Friends church stumbles upon an enlightenment she never expected; a cantankerous retiree discovers a cougar living in his haymow, haunting him like a childhood memory; and a former drifter forever alters the ties that bind a community together.
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