Best Books Set in Iowa

Every state is known for something. As you work your way through the list, don't miss the best books set in Iowa.

Iowa, a Midwestern U.S. state, sits between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. It’s known for its landscape of rolling plains and cornfields. Landmarks in the capital, Des Moines, include the gold-domed, 19th-century State Capitol Building, Pappajohn Sculpture Park, and the Des Moines Art Center, noted for its contemporary collections.

The city of Cedar Rapids' Museum of Art has paintings by native Iowan Grant Wood.

In this post:

The Bridges of Madison County

Amazon Kindle Edition
Waller, Robert James (Author)

The Bridges of Madison County

Author: Robert Waller

If you've ever experienced the one true love of your life, a love that for some reason could never be, you will understand why readers all over the world are so moved by this small, unknown first novel that it became a publishing phenomenon and #1 bestseller.

The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood dream.

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The Bridges of Madison County gives voice to the longings of men and women everywhere — and shows us what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again.

A Thousand Acres: A Novel

Amazon Kindle Edition
Smiley, Jane (Author)

A Thousand Acres

Author: Jane Smiley

When the youngest daughter objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions.

Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.

Shoeless Joe

Amazon Kindle Edition
Kinsella, W. P. (Author)

Shoeless Joe

Author: W. P. Kinsella

“If you build it, he will come.” When Ray Kinsella hears these mysterious words spoken in the voice of an Iowa baseball announcer, he is inspired to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield. It is a tribute to his hero, the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, whose reputation was forever tarnished by the scandalous 1919 World Series.

Gilead (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel

Amazon Kindle Edition
Robinson, Marilynne (Author)

Gilead

Author: Marilynne Robinson

In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears.

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Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He “preached men into the Civil War,” then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle.

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The Weight of Silence

Gudenkauf, Heather (Author)
English (Publication Language)

The Weight of Silence

Author: Heather Gudenkauf

When two little girls disappear in the night, the truth about what happened lies in the words they cannot speak. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families wake to find their little girls have gone missing.

There’s seven-year-old Calli Clark, a sweet, gentle dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler, and Petra Gregory, Calli’s best friend, her soul mate, and her voice.