Shortest Way Home: One mayor's challenge and a model for America's future

Pete Buttigieg, the thirty-seven-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has written a political biography called Shortest Way Home that chronicles the heroic transformation of a dying city into a shining model of urban reinvention. He was elected at twenty-nine and recognized that great cities are built through attention to the everyday. Buttigieg's audacious campaign to reclaim 1,000 houses in 1,000 days and deploy to serve in Afghanistan as a Navy officer is highlighted, as is his personal challenge of coming out and finding Chasten Glezman, a middle-school teacher, who would become his partner for life. The book challenges our perception of the typical American politician and provides a new vision for America's shortest way home.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 21 January 2021
Publisher: John Murray Press

Pete Buttigieg, the thirty-seven-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has emerged as one of America's most visionary politicians. His inspiring story of a Midwest city that has become a blueprint for American renewal is told in his book, "Shortest Way Home." The Washington Post once described him as the most interesting mayor you've never heard of.

The book celebrates the heroic transformation of a dying city into a shining model of urban reinvention. Elected at twenty-nine as the nation's youngest mayor, Buttigieg recognized that great cities and even great nations are built through attention to the everyday.

The challenges he faced were daunting, including gun violence, renaming a street in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and attracting tech companies to a city that had appealed more to junk bond scavengers than serious investors.

Buttigieg's audacious campaign to reclaim 1,000 houses, many of them abandoned, in 1,000 days and then deploying to serve in Afghanistan as a Navy officer is highlighted in the book. The most personal challenge for Buttigieg came when he came out as gay in a South Bend Tribune editorial before being re-elected with 78 percent of the vote and then finding Chasten Glezman, a middle-school teacher, who would become his partner for life.

"Shortest Way Home" challenges our perception of the typical American politician with its graceful, often humorous language. It chronicles two once-untold stories of American renewal and hope.

Weight: 252g
Dimension: 129 x 197 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529398069