These compelling stories offer a detailed look at a part ofthe country many Americans only glimpse through an airplane window from 30,000feet—the small towns of the rural Midwest. The characters here—struggling to raise children and build a better future, or just to escape their past; searchingfor connection on social media and longing for the glory days of youth, even asthey put on pounds and lose hair; good citizens, and criminal—populate alandscape of emotional peaks and valleys far more varied and interesting thanthe flat physical terrain they inhabit. They are the people we’ve left behindwhen we moved to the city, or the people we’ve become. They are us.