Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 by Garrison Keillor, a hilarious coming-of-age-novel, evokes the post-war optimism and Cold War suspicion of outsiders, all related in a relentlessly charming prose.

A hilarious coming-of-age novel, Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 serves up the world according to 14-year-old Gary, an endearing geek, a self-described 'tree-toad', and a writer in the making whose best friend is his Underwood typewriter. Always with humour, and often with great sympathy, charm and honesty, the author tells us a story that both satirises and celebrates the traumas and the passions of adolescence. Keillor takes us back to a newly-minted America. With its post-war optimism and Cold War suspicions of outsiders, the 1950s are evoked in unforgettable Wobegon fashion.