The Boatbuilder
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Description
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Long-listed for the 2018 National Book Award in Fiction. At 28 years old, Eli "Berg" Koenigsberg has never encountered a challenge he couldn't push through, until a head injury leaves him with lingering headaches and a weakness for opiates. Berg moves to a remote Northern California town, seeking space and time to recover, but soon finds himself breaking into homes in search of pills. Addled by addiction and chronic pain, Berg meets Alejandro, a reclusive, master boatbuilder, and begins to see a path forward. Alejandro offers Berg honest labor, but more than this, he offers him a new approach to his suffering, a template for survival amid intense pain. Nurtured by his friendship with Alejandro and aided, too, by the comradeship of many in Talinas, Berg begins to return to himself. Written in gleaming prose, this is a story about resilience, community, and what it takes to win back your soul.
Praise for The Boatbuilder
“[Gumbiner] allows his characters and small-town setting to shine in this beautiful novel about finding one’s place, no matter how small, in the world."
—Booklist
"This is an utterly beautiful book. To read it is to understand that you have been waiting for it." —Alejandro Zambra
“Daniel Gumbiner brings coastal California into sparkling focus in this moving story of a young man’s transition into adulthood. Told with wit and heart, The Boatbuilder is a meditation on love, loyalty, and the shared experiences that turn strangers into family.” —Tayari Jones
"The Boatbuilder is a gorgeous debut about addiction, aspiration, and art on the California coast. It's radiantly imagined, often moving, always funny, and teeming with life. Daniel Gumbiner isn’t a writer to watch—he’s one to read." —Anthony Marra
"This book's alive. The Boatbuilder is a surprising and soulful first novel and it deserves many, many readers." —Peter Orner
