内容简介：
When Ansgar Thoreson, a Norwegian immigrant to Minnesota in 1858, built his dream house for his wife and hoped-for children, he used sawdust to insulate it against the winds that roared across the winter prairie. Providing warmth of another kind was the small community Ansgar joined and eventually led. Accidents, weddings, Christmas celebrations, hailstorms, deaths - joyful or somber, events like these knitted the community together. Sawdust was also a metaphor for his crumbling marriage. His wife reluctantly followed him to America, but even there devoted herself exclusively to their son. When tragedy struck, their lives unfolded in ways that made difficulties also for the community. Love can take many forms, some more authentic than others. Finding which was true for him was Ansgar's challenge.