The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth

From beloved Minnesota author Bill Holm, a postcard from home, investigating—through the lens of small-town life—what community means to us and the rigid definitions we give to “success” and “failure.”

Growing up, Holm could define failure easily; it was “to die in Minneota.” But when he returned to his hometown (“a very small dot on the ghost of an ocean of grass”) twenty years later, he began to uncover the past and to discover more of himself and of our time. When Holm writes of Minneota, its lost histories—and its people—emerge with a wit that disarms us and a wisdom that gets to the heart of our culture. By stepping out of the mainstream into what others regard as a backwater, Holm began to question the pace of our culture and how, in the rush to get ahead, we’ve lost our roots.

Whether tracking the forbidden recipes of Holm’s Icelandic parents or spilling the beans on the scandalous affair of Hester and Art, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth celebrates the connections between us.