Shortest Way Home

One Mayor's Challenge and A Model for America's Future

By: Pete Buttigieg

Narrated by: Pete Buttigieg

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

A mayor's inspirational story of a Midwest city that has become nothing less than a blueprint for the future of American renewal. Once described by the Washington Post as "the most interesting mayor you've never heard of," Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has now emerged as one of America's most visionary politicians. 

With soaring prose that celebrates a resurgent American Midwest, Shortest Way Home narrates the heroic transformation of a "dying city" (Newsweek) into nothing less than a shining model of urban reinvention. Elected at 29 as the nation's youngest mayor, Pete Buttigieg immediately recognised that "great cities, and even great nations, are built through attention to the everyday". As Shortest Way Home recalls, the challenges were daunting - whether confronting gun violence, renaming a street in honour of Martin Luther King Jr., or attracting tech companies to a city that had appealed more to junk bond scavengers than serious investors. 

None of this is underscored more than Buttigieg's audacious campaign to reclaim 1,000 houses, many of them abandoned, in 1,000 days and then, even as a sitting mayor, deploying to serve in Afghanistan as a Navy officer. 

Yet the most personal challenge still awaited Buttigieg, who came out in a South Bend Tribune editorial, just before being reelected with 78 percent of the vote, and then finding Chasten Glezman, a middle-school teacher, who would become his partner for life.  

While Washington reels with scandal, Shortest Way Home, with its graceful, often humorous language, challenges our perception of the typical American politician. In chronicling two once-unthinkable stories that of an Afghanistan veteran who came out and found love and acceptance, all while in office, and that of a revitalised Rust Belt city no longer regarded as "flyover country", Buttigieg provides a new vision for America's shortest way home.

©2019 Peter Buttigieg (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic reviews

"The best American political biography since Obama's Dreams from My Father." (Guardian)

Give this man the Oval Office!

This book is essential to understand the meteoric rise of Mayor Pete. Brilliant, overwhelming, thoughtful.

A hope for the future

Loved the book and the voice of Pete. I hope he becomes president. highly recommend.

Buy this book!

Absolutely fantastic. Beautifully written. Wonderfully read by the author himself. This is a memoir but it's written with real narrative power.

Excellent book

Fascinating book. Pete is intelligently observant of all things it seems.
I’m just a few chapters in, but want to gift it to others, it’s so good.
Thank you Pete. I do hope you will be 47th President. Thank you.

Let yourself be inspired! Our future in Pete’s hands will be bright!

Give Pete a chance to enchant you with the story of his life, it may be short but dense with experiences and so full of encouraging messages for our future!

President Pete!

he's intellectual, honest, competent, a great individual and a great politician. Pete is the kind of person we need as a leader of the free world!

Compelling and inspiring insight

Slightly different to the usual political biography, 'Shortest Way Home' is an always positive, rarely boring look at Mayor Pete's life. The vast majority of it focuses on his work life, tending to shy away from the personal side but it still leads to a compelling read. The way he talks about politics, from losing in his first race to the everyday mundane jobs of a mayor, is inspiring. There is an obvious love for what he is doing, which is always coloured with themes of bipartisanship and a relentless positivity. It doesn't talk about his plan to run in 2020, but his general views and ideas are outlined throughout. The insight into Mike Pence as governor is absolutely fascinating, talking of Pence's strength at working with local government, all the way to his strong, unyielding stance on LGBT issues that culminates in a blatant attempt to blend open and proud discrimination in law. As a mayor of a city that was neither resoundingly democrat or republican, he also provides invaluable insight into voter's reactions to some of Trump's policies. A thoroughly recommended read.

Relatable af

I an a British politics student and i am amazed by this guy he is my political idol. His book isn't overly political it let's you know about him as a person. Unlike a lot of books by politicians this stands out as an anomaly. I recommended this book to several people and I recommend this to whom listens or reads this. 👍

A lovely listen

I really enjoyed this biography, the mix of day to day politics with Pete's thoughts and observations are well balanced. I also found myself unexpectedly laughing out loud a few times. What surprised and delighted me the most was how well Pete read the book, I have heard him speaking many times from speeches and interviews but I found his delivery to be fun and heartfelt. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly as a lovely listen.