North Country

In celebration of his first half century of life, Howard Frank Mosher set off on a journey he had long dreamed of, following America's northern border from coast to coast in search of the country's last unspoiled frontiers. What he discovered was not a border in the conventional sense but a vast and sparsely populated territory largely ignored by the rest of the United States and Canada, a harsh and beautiful region populated by some of the continent's most self-sufficient, independent-minded men and women. Mosher brings the remote North Country vividly to life, showing how a tough and interesting land breeds tough and interesting people. He flies the wild Maine border with bush pilot Ti Rene, learns about past and present hardships in the mines of the Mesabi Range, crosses into Manitoba to get to the sliver of U.S. territory called the Northwest Angle, fishes for trout in northern Idaho under the intense gaze of a strange survivalist. As he hears the stories of the many North Country people he meets, he reflects on the powerful characters he has encountered in his own life and how this land has shaped his life and his books.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.