If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now

An NPR Best Book of the Year: “With humor and insight, [the author] writes of relocating his family from Washington, DC, to rural Minnesota.” —Publishers Weekly

This is the hilarious, charming, and candid story of writer Christopher Ingraham’s decision to uproot his life and move his family to Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, population 1,400—the community he made famous as “the worst place to live in America.”

Like many young couples, Chris and his wife, Briana, were having a hard time making ends meet as they raised their twin boys in the East Coast suburbs. One day, Chris—in his role as a “data guy” reporter at the Washington Post—stumbled on a study that would change his life. It was a ranking of America’s 3,000+ counties from ugliest to most scenic. He quickly scrolled to the bottom of the list and gleefully wrote the words “The absolute worst place to live in America is (drumroll please) . . . Red Lake County, Minn.” The story went viral, to put it mildly.

Among the reactions were many from residents of Red Lake County. While they were unflappably polite—it’s not called “Minnesota Nice” for nothing—they challenged him to look beyond the spreadsheet and actually visit their community. Ingraham, with slight trepidation, accepted. Impressed by the locals’ warmth, humor, and hospitality (and ever more aware of their financial situation and his torturous commute), Chris and Briana eventually decided to relocate to the town he’d just dragged through the dirt on the Internet.

If You Lived Here You’d Be Home by Now is the story of making a decision that turns all your preconceptions—good and bad—on their heads. In Red Lake County, Ingraham experiences the power of small-town gossip, struggles to find a decent cup of coffee, suffers through winters with temperatures dropping to forty below, and unearths some truths about rural life that the coastal media usually miss. It’s a wry and charming tale—with data!—of what happened to one family brave enough to move waaaay beyond its comfort zone.

“Ingraham deals with a number of fundamental issues: health care, schools, social life, and, of course, the extreme cold of northern Minnesota . . . Throughout, Ingraham writes with the conviction of one who has found—as least for him—tranquility and truth.” —Kirkus Reviews