First published 2003
Development creeps across Greenland Township, Michigan, where cornfields become subdivisions and old ways clash with new arrivals. The road everyone calls Queer Road cuts through this changing landscape, connecting a community of misfits and longtime residents who watch their world transform. Farmers who once took land from Potawatomi tribes now lose their own acres to suburban developers. Prefab houses pop up where corn grew the season before. Along this single stretch of road, rural traditions bump against modern life in unexpected ways. The residents navigate these changes with humor, stubbornness, and surprising grace. Their stories reveal how people adapt when the familiar ground shifts beneath them. Campbell captures a moment when one version of America gives way to another, showing how communities endure even as everything around them changes.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: slice-of-life, social-commentary
Setting: Greenland Township, Michigan, Potawatomi
Period: 21st Century
288 pages · Paperback · Scribner