Eddy Gilmore found himself on society’s fringe after being exiled from Corporate America. Despite years of higher education and exemplary service inside a cubicle’s pixelated world, he had no tangible or transferable skills to offer his community. Amazingly, failure was the door into tapping dreams and gifts that had long been ignored as impractical.

This true to life adventure is a pilgrimage into the real world, a place where neighbors make and produce things that sustain life and bring joy. When their eyes were opened to the talents all around them, Eddy and his wife discovered how to produce value themselves, and sank roots into the community. By working together, they are building a life they might never need to retire from.

From the author of Peace Like a River, Leif Enger:
Eddy Gilmore grows brilliant sprouts - vivid, spicy microgreens he nourishes through the dark Duluth winters (he plays them vinyl records). But the other thing Eddy cultivates, with great deliberation, is the occasional candid and scrupulous memoir. Lit Up opens with a startling mid-life derailment, then gets its feet on the ground and plunges into the search for local, creative, joyful work. The result is wry and forthright and in a way quite fearless. Lit Up has dirt on its elbows and a wink in its eye - a neighborly book if there ever was one.