The Last Farmer

A son’s poignant farewell to the family farm.

Howard Kohn grew up on a farm in Michigan’s Saginaw Valley and left at the earliest opportunity, choosing the itinerant life of a journalist over his father’s slate of daily chores. As Kohn aged and became a parent himself, he found himself drawn back to the family farm, to the routine of early mornings and hard work, church suppers and evenings spent around the old kitchen table. This stunning book, a Pulitzer Prize nominee the year that it was published, tells the story of the farm’s last season in operation and the senior Kohn’s difficult decision to retire from the family business. Different though they may be, Kohn’s deep respect for his father is evident at every turn; the man is never caricatured as a simpleton. The reader doesn’t need to know farming to recognize the themes of home and generational struggles in this truly remarkable memoir.