Population: 485

Description:

Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin, where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, Population: 485 is a comic and sometimes heartbreaking true tale leavened with quieter meditations on an overlooked America.

subjects: Biography & Autobiography,  Travel,  Nonfiction,  Social life and customs,  Volunteer fire fighters,  Emergency medical technicians,  Wisconsin, social life and customs,  Wisconsin, biography,  Fire fighters,  Biography,  New York Times reviewed,  Emergency medical services,  Rural health,  Fire departments,  Rescue work