The grandmothers : A family portrait

Growing up on a Wisconsin farm founded when the region was still wilderness, Alwyn Tower is surrounded by people who seem to belong to another age. His family home has been rebuilt and rearranged across generations, its rooms filled with fading photographs, handmade plates, old furniture, family Bibles, and keepsakes whose stories reach back to vanished cabins and forgotten lives.

Through Alwyn’s childhood eyes, a large and complicated family gradually comes into focus: grandparents, uncles, aunts, marriages, losses, disappearances, and names that echo from one generation to the next. The narrative blends affectionate observation with a keen awareness of how memory transforms ordinary objects and domestic spaces, asking how the past survives in the minds of those who inherit it. Rich in detail and quietly reflective, this is an intimate portrait of family life, ancestry, and the changing American landscape.