Set in the North Woods at the headwaters of the Mississippi, Heart of the North includes stories of ordinary lives in a starkly realistic Minnesota landscape. Inspired by Hemingway's belief that the deepest truths lie just beneath the surface, these tales—like "Summer Dreams," where two women share a bottle of wine and the unspoken weight of their lives—capture the quiet lives of the people who live in the land of lakes and prairies, and forests.