At the age of 60, a Kentucky man decides to find out why half a century earlier his favorite uncle was shot, a crime for which the killer spent only two years in jail. The man was nine years old when the incident occurred and nobody would give him a reason.

"The poems of Wendell Berry invite us to stop, to think, to see the world around us, and to savour what is good. Here are consoling verses of hope and of healing; short, simple meditations on love, death, friendship, memory and belonging; luminous hymns to the land, the cycles of nature and the seasons as they ebb and flow. Here is the peace of wild things." - publisher.

Seven Kentucky stories set in the 1940s and featuring farmer Ptolemy Proudfoot and his schoolteacher wife, Miss Minnie. In The Solemn Boy, they invite a couple of hobos to a meal, while Nearly to the Fair comprises Proudfoot's amusing reflections on travel by car. By the author of What Are People For?

"As the United States prepares to leave its long war in Afghanistan, it now must contemplate the necessity of sending troops back to Iraq, recalling General Colin Powell's advice to President Bush: "If you break it, you own it," as the world's hot spots threaten to spread over the globe with the ferocity of a war of holy terror and desperation. The planet's environmental problems respect no national boundaries. From soil erosion and population displacement...

A white-footed mouse is swept away in a flood and must carefully watch and wait until it is safe to make a home in its new surroundings.

These eleven essays, selected by the author from five previous collections, provides us with a single volume tracing Mr. Berry's desire to 'make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.'