The Austin Page Turners Committee chose “Vacationland” by author Sarah Stonich as the book for next year’s 14th annual citywide reading.

“The fact that it talks about vacations up north, it’s so Minnesotan,” Page Turners Planning Committee co-chair Bonnie Rietz said.

The Page Turners made their annual announcement Tuesday at Austin Public Library. Stonich will come to the Austin Public Library at 7 p.m. on March 23 for an event, but committee members have not decided what other events Stonich will take part in. They will discuss further details at another meeting in January.

The book tells the stories of different people who vacation at the Naledi Lodge up north. The story centers around several characters, including Meg, who grew up under her grandfather’s care a lifetime ago.

Now an artist, Meg paints images that are similar to the stories of the rest of the characters, including a man from nearby Hatchet Inlet who knew Meg years ago, a Sarajevo refugee sponsored by two parishes who can’t afford “their own refugee,” aged sisters traveling to fulfill a fateful pact once made at the resort, a philandering ad man, a lonely Ojibwa stonemason, and a haiku-spouting girl rescued from a bog.

“Each chapter is a different person who has something to do with the resort,” Rietz said. “Just that Minnesota thing of going up north to a resort or to a cabin really resonated with the group this year.”

The book was chosen out of 10 to 14 other books. It had previously been looked at for a past year’s Page Turner’s event, but this year the group decided it was time for the book to be featured in Austin.

Stonich was born in Duluth and lived in the Iron Range northwest of Duluth. She moved to the Twin Cities in 1986, where she worked as a columnist, editor and freelance writer.

“I wanted to write a book around the idea of one place, and this place is the resort,” Stonich said.

Her hope is that when people read the book, they will get a better sense of northern Minnesota and the state’s character, and that it is much more complex than what people first think. She was inspired to write the book at a resort, because many people have memories of “going up north to the cabin.”

She was excited to write about the expectations that people have for their vacations and how they don’t always go as planned, whether good or bad.

Stonich is currently working on a sequel and plans to turn it into a trilogy. She has written two other books: “The Granite Islands” and “The Ice Chorus.” Both are ses in northern Minnesota.

Stonich has spoken to several communities about her books and is excited to come to Austin.

“It’s been so fun to go to the different communities that I have,” Stonich said. “Having an entire community read the book is very humbling and I’m very honored.”

The Page Turners start seeking books over the summer before meeting in September. The Page Turners almost always select a Minnesota author.

Austin residents and area book clubs are invited to read the book before the March 23 event.

Past Page Turners’ reads

2002: “A Place Where the Sea Remembers” by Sandra Benítez

2003: “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien

2004: “Haunted Ground” by Erin Hart

2005: “The St. Paul Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald” edited by Patricia Hampl

2006: “Daughter of China” by Larry Engelmann and Meihong Xu

2007: “The novels of Lorna Landvik”

2008: “Sweet Land: New and Selected Stories” by Will Weaver

2009: “The novels of Leif Enger”

2010: “Thunder Bay” by William Kent Krueger

2011: “The Latehomecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir” by Kao Kalia Yang

2012: “Deadly Reunion” by Ron Handberg

2013: “Safe From the Sea” by Peter Geye

2014: “The Cartographer of No Man’s Land” by P.S. Duffy