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From Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Critics Circle Awardwinning author of Newjack a passage through an America lived wild and off the grid where along with independence and stunning views come fierce winds neighbors with criminal pasts and minimal government and medical services

In these dispatches Conover invites readers to ride shotgun along an unraveling edge of the American West where sepiatoned myths about making a fresh start collide with modern modes of alienation volatility and exile In a nation whose edges have come to define its center this is essential readingJessica Bruder author of Nomadland Surviving America in the TwentyFirst Century

In May 2017 Ted Conover went to Colorado to explore firsthand a rural way of life that is about living cheaply on your own landand keeping clear of the mainstream The failed subdivisions of the enormous San Luis Valley make this possible Fiveacre lots on the high prairie can be had for five thousand dollars sometimes less

Conover volunteered for a local group trying to prevent homelessness during the bitter winters He encountered an unexpected diversity veterans with PTSD families homeschooling addicts young and old gay people people of color lovers of guns and marijuana people with social anxietymost of them spurning charity and aiming and sometimes failing to be selfsufficient And more than a few predicting theyll be the last ones standing when society collapses

Conover bought his own five acres and immersed himself for parts of four years in the often contentious culture of the far margins He found many who dislike the government but depend on its subsidies who love their space but nevertheless find themselves in each others business who are generous but wary of thieves who endure squalor but appreciate beauty In their struggles to survive and get along they tell us about an America riven by difference where the edges speak more and more loudly to the mainstream