Heather Lende

Prize-winning author of If you Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name

Praise for If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name

Click to enlarge image of the hard cover edition of the book.

"Part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott..."
-- L.A. Times

Small town's warmth, chill blanket 'If You Lived Here'
-- Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

"A surprisingly charming little book about community and knowing your neighbors."
--The Vail Trail

"The title is incomplete-- they should add "And If You Died Here, I'd Know Even More."
--The Washington Post

"The book is a charmer from beginning to end."
--Bas Bleu book catalog

"It's a gift to discover a collection of essays that ... makes the reader feel part of the writer's world. I hope Lende writes more."
--Winston-Salem Journal

"Heather Lende paints an affectionate portrait of the quirky characters in Haines...she also writes about God and, although liberal, writes generously about people who are to her right both politically and theologically."
--The World

"Like Bailey White's tales of Southern life or Garrison Keillor's reports from the Midwest... Heather Lende's take on her offbeat Alaskan hometown celebrates life in a dangerous and breathtakingly beautiful place."
--Captiva Current

"Lende's first book is a welcome trip to her paradise"
-- Cox News Service

"If you've always wanted to go to Alaska, but haven't done so yet, pick up her book- where else are you going to read about blueberry picking with a boom box to ward off bears?"
--The Christian Science Monitor

"Heather's rendering of a place and its people is so honest, so intimate and so perfect that small town Haines might have to pack up and hide in the backwoods until the stampede of greenhorns hightails it out of there when the weather turns just a little cold. What makes her story so damn endearing is that there still exists a community on the edge of somewhere where the fire is always stoked by friends and family who care deeply for each other and the place they call home. It's what, I think, we all want from life."
-- Craig Popelars, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

"Heather Lende is the perfect frontier guide- clear- eyed and big- hearted, tackling family and community and life and death with humor and hope."
- Stewart O'Nan, author of Faithful

"Heather Lende writes from the heart, and her heart is where her home is. If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name is the real story of small- town Alaska. Not the one with the Hollywood laugh track behind it. These are true tales of ordinary people who do extraordinary things with (and to) one another in one of the most beautiful backwaters on Earth."
- Tom Bodett, author of The End of the Road stories and Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier

"This is the beautiful, funny, compassionate story of a remote American small town and its people- the upstanding citizens, the goofy characters, the fast friends and avowed enemies- united by their zip code, but above all by their mortality. Heather Lende is deeply attuned to the simple, the quirky, and the quietly profound elements that compose a life well- lived, and she writes of them with grace and good humor. When, now and again, your reading is interrupted by tears, they will be the sweet sort."
- Michael Perry author of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time

"This is something tender and brave- using death as introduction to lives and loves and fabric of community in a northern town. Heather Lende provides powerful witness."
- Seth Kantner, author of Ordinary Wolves

"[Heather Lende] concerns herself with family and community in the Last Frontier State- and one might say, everywhere else too. Written with ease and empathy, this is both about maintaining a home in Alaska and about being at home in the world...Homespun warmth in a cold climate"
- Kirkus Reviews

"Lende paints a picture of life in a unique setting and writes thoughtfully about her life, family, faith, neighbors and small town conflict... [An] absorbing homage."
- Library Journal

"The author has a real gift for eulogy; she knows that every life contains something to admire, honor or illuminate...Lende's quiet vice resonates long after the book is finished."
- Booklist

Ordering

If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name is now at most bookstores. Check with booksense.com to find the store nearest you and to learn more about good books and independent booksellers.