One foggy morning, an email appears in inboxes across the small town of Lanier, Indiana, population 12,234. "Invitation to Participate: Sexual Practices in a Small Midwestern Town," the subject line reads. A link leads to an extensive survey. But why has Lanier been chosen? And by whom? Street by street and resident by resident–from the Covid-stricken basketball coach, to the bartender finding her way to writing, to the bureaucrat with a vendetta against the hot-dog vendor–the email opens up the secret (and not so secret) lives of one small town, and reveals the surprising complexity of Midwestern life in our post-pandemic times.
