“A debut collection of … sermon-like takes covering a year in the life of a Presbyterian minister in a small Minnesota town?.?by a native of Minneapolis. Alter-ego Reverend David Battles arrived in the tiny town of North Haven fresh from seminary school and on his way to grander pulpits, but he and his family have discovered in their four years of small-town life that instead of outgrowing this backwater they’ve become attached to its every quirk and comfort? by a native of Minneapolis. Alter-ego Reverend David Battles arrived in the tiny town of North Haven fresh from seminary school and on his way to grander pulpits, but he and his family have discovered in their four years of small-town life that instead of outgrowing this backwater they’ve become attached to its every quirk and comfort?—?and have themselves become a local institution along the way.