The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County is a 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller that tells the story of a married but lonely Italian-American woman (war bride) living on a 1960s Madison County, Iowa, farm. While her husband and children are away at the State Fair, she engages in an affair with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham, Washington, who is visiting Madison County to create a photographic essay on the covered bridges in the area. The novel is presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact entirely fictional. However, the author stated in an interview that there were strong similarities between the main character and himself.

Question: is bridges of madison county a true story
Answer: no