May 17, 2022
My new book about life off-grid in Colorado’s San Luis Valley comes out this fall, and I’m super excited about it. Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge describes the unusual people who choose to live on that beautiful, lonely prairie and my life among them—first as a volunteer for a group trying to prevent homelessness, and then as a neighbor, after I bought my own five acres. You can read more about it and pre-order the book here.
Jessica Bruder, who wrote Nomadland, had this to say about Cheap Land Colorado:
“Conover invites readers to ride shotgun along an unraveling edge of the American West, where sepia-toned myths about making a fresh start collide with modern modes of alienation, volatility and exile. Unflinchingly candid and eternally big-hearted, Conover brings the frontier and its denizens into focus without blurring any contradictions: splendor and brutality, freedom and deprivation, hospitality alongside a deep-seated unease.”
The title, by the way, comes from the phrase some prairie people have used in order to search online for land they can afford.