"It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten him into trouble, again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's Northwoods, where they hope to make a fresh start, and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends--human, animal, and otherworldly--to realize their dreams."-- Provided by publisher.

Oprah's Book Club, 2024

Prologue: Sixty-Three Yards in the Middle of Nowhere -- Part I: Another Carnival of the Same Gods -- Chapter 1. A Factory Is Also Like the World -- Chapter 2. Something Beyond Something -- Chapter 3. Pariah -- Chapter 4. The Reward -- Chapter 5. The Globe -- Chapter 6. Granddaddy's Froze Up Again -- Chapter 7. Rooms -- Chapter 8. Dreams Were Thunder -- Chapter 9. Squeezing the Beast -- Chapter 10. One Impossible Thing -- Chapter 11. Frank -- Chapter 12. Last Days at Elm Street -- Chapter 13. There Are Times You Need a Road -- Chapter 14. Hillside -- Part II: Lookahead Girl -- Chapter 1. A Fifty-Year Secret -- Chapter 2. Beneath the Wheels of the Mistake Train -- Chapter 3. Signing On -- Chapter 4. The Lady in the Lake -- Chapter 5. The Peshtigo Expedition -- Chapter 6. At the Hospital -- Chapter 7. I Call Her Ida -- Chapter 8. A Shopkeep Life -- Chapter 9. Thieves and Lightning -- Chapter 10. How It Was at the Hollow -- Part III: Relaxalot -- Chapter 1. She'll Be Sweet Again -- Chapter 2. Tracts and Ticks -- Chapter 3. Two Problems Solved -- Chapter 4. Necessary, Useful, Beautiful -- Chapter 5. You Can't Reason with Dirt -- Chapter 6. Winter -- Chapter 7. Winter Beyond Winter -- Chapter 8. The Ferryman's Riddle -- Chapter 9. Sentimental Counseling -- Chapter 10. Suckered -- Chapter 11. The Leg of Morpheus -- Chapter 12. The Hazardous Globe of Death -- Chapter 13. The Sport of Prohibition -- Chapter 14. Summer -- Chapter 15. Briefly in the Sun -- Chapter 16. Relaxalot Is Also Like the World -- Chapter 17. After Relaxalot -- Part IV: Searcher, Consoler, Challenger, Defender, Betrayer -- Chapter 1. Every Dog Runs Once -- Chapter 2. Foundation Stock -- Chapter 3. Combination Man -- Chapter 4. A Major Fucking Dog Man -- Chapter 5. Claude -- Chapter 6. Reunion -- Chapter 7. Minch Rules -- Chapter 8. Doc -- Chapter 9. Bigger Inside -- Chapter 10. Captured -- Chapter 11. Withdrawn -- Chapter 12. Searchers -- Chapter 13. Consoler and Betrayer -- Chapter 14. The Claude File -- Chapter 15. A Son of a Minch -- Chapter 16. Sawtelle Rules -- Part V: An Agitation of the Heart -- Chapter 1. Placements -- Chapter 2. Just So Many Dogs -- Chapter 3. Vagabond -- Chapter 4. The Work of Leaving -- Chapter 5. Enlisting -- Chapter 6. Frank's -- Chapter 7. The Grand Liberty -- Chapter 8. Oceanside Is Also Like the World -- Part VI: Familiaris -- Chapter 1. 1957 -- Chapter 2. 1958 -- Chapter 3. 1959 -- Chapter 4. 1960 -- Chapter 5. 1961 -- Epilogue: Beyond Something -- Acknowledgments.