‘Driving Backwards’ author Jessica Landers at the Gilmanton Year Round Library on July 29

GILMANTON — Jessica Landers, 20-year summer resident of the Town, brings her book Driving Backwards, an exploration of Gilmanton's todays and yesterdays, to the Year-Round Library on Tuesday evening, July 29 at 6 pm.

Gilmanton was briefly the most famous town in America. Today the town, nestled amongst the hills of central New Hampshire and along the curve of the Suncook River, is a microcosm of the changing ways and enduring values of rural life in the twenty-first century.

Driving Backwards is a poignant exploration of the vividness of the everyday. Across twenty years of summers, Jessica Lander has come to know Gilmanton and its residents. Valerie, who tends sixty-five goats, home-schools ten children and crafts artisanal goat cheese. Jim and Cheryl, who raise miniature horses, flocks of chickens and long-eared rabbits, all on two tiny acres. Duncan, a third generation farmer, who harvests thousands of pounds of wild blueberries every summer. Chuck, who runs a six-generation dairy farm.

Lander's guide is David Bickford – a fireman, carpenter, town selectman and nearly one-hundred-year-old storyteller. Through richly observed portraits and elegant prose, Lander elevates the ordinary and encourages a deeper appreciation for the stories that surround us.

The public is invited to join Jessica at the Library, on NH Route 140, opposite the Gilmanton School.