Thomas Pawlick's new book "the War in the Country: How the Fight to save Rural Life will shape our Future" is a rip snorting, page turner filled with intrigue, violence, deception, and greed. (And you thought environmental non-fiction was dry and boring. )

In it Pawlick recounts, with evident dismay, the deterioration of rural life, the difficulties facing small land owners, the dangers of industrial agriculture and the apparent unfairness of heavy-handed government bureaucracy.