A student becomes intrigued by a mysterious friend whose intimate relationship with the history of the mill town where he grew up informs his politics and enigmatic writing. With curiosity that often breaches the private boundaries of friendship, the student's warm and comedic accounts repeatedly shift to a narrative space where the harsh conditions, operations, and confines of the residents of the mill town are explored in clinical detail.

Owen Toews is a geographer based in Winnipeg, Canada. He is currently working on a book project about land policy and the human geography of the Prairie West, 1869-2015 and teaching in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of Manitoba. He holds a Ph.D in Human Geography from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and has worked as an instructor at the Macaulay Honors College-Brooklyn College and the Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning. He is a founding member of the DIY museum collective Winnipeg Arcades Project, a member of the abolitionist prisoner solidarity group Bar None, and acquisitions editor for ARP Books' Semaphore series.

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