Eli “Berg” Koenigsberg arrives in a small Northern California town after a concussion, an opioid addiction, rehab, relapse, and still dragging the old self behind him.

Broke, uncertain and not especially equipped for ordinary adulthood, he finds work with an ageing boatbuilder and begins an apprenticeship. Together through sanding, shaping, watching, listening, he learns the patience by way of making something that cannot be rushed.

Daniel Gumbiner’s debut novel is interested in recovery without turning it into a clean redemption arc. Berg is not dramatically saved by craft, community or love; he is slowly reassembled by them, which is much less cinematic and much more convincing. The novel moves through addiction, work, friendship, desire, shame and small-town intimacy with a steady, humane attention to how people build lives from available materials, even when half the timber is warped.

A gentle, intelligent novel for readers drawn to contemporary American literary fiction, recovery narratives, apprenticeship stories, and books where making something with your hands becomes a way of thinking without having to announce itself as therapy. 

First edition, first printing, published by McSweeney’s in 2018. Paperback. Light shelfwear to cover and edges, with some rubbing/marking visible to the wraps; corners lightly bumped. Pages appear clean and binding sound. National Book Award Longlist sticker to front cover.