<B>This vivid memoir about the heartbreaks and ecstasies of marriage, fatherhood, and small-town Midwestern life is “so raw and true you’ll gasp” (<I>O, The Oprah Magazine</I>).</B><P>After his first cross-country motorcycle trip, Joe Blair believed he had discovered his true calling. He would travel. He would never cave in to convention. He would never settle down. <P> <P>Fifteen years later, Joe finds himself living in Iowa, working as an air-conditioning repairman and spending his free time cleaning gutters, taxiing his children, and contemplating marital infidelity. When the Iowa River floods, transforming the familiar streets of his small town into a terrible and beautiful sea, he begins to question the path that led him to this place.<P> <P>Exquisitely observed and lyrically recounted, this is a compelling and often humorous account of an ordinary man’s struggle to live an extraordinary life. A finalist for the <I>Elle</I> magazine Reader’s Choice Award, <I>By the Iowa Sea</I> charmed critics, booksellers, and readers alike.