The Boatbuilder, Daniel Gumbiner
The Boatbuilder, Daniel Gumbiner
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The Boatbuilder

Author: Daniel Gumbiner

Narrator: Shawn Compton

Unabridged: 5 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/18/2018


Synopsis

Long-listed for the 2018 National Book Award in Fiction

At twenty-eight 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.

About Daniel Gumbiner

Daniel Gumbiner was born and raised in Northern California. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011 and now lives in Southern Nevada. The Boatbuilder is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Meike

Nominated for the National Book Award 2018 This debut novel finds the roots of the opioid crisis in hot button issues from the 19th century and seeks possible solutions in meditation, mindfulness, and a return to nature - it's not that Daniel Gumbiner is completely wrong with his ideas, but content a......more

Goodreads review by Bandit

This book had me at boats. Or maybe Northern California. But otherwise the main appeal was the adventure of finding oneself. Or not an adventure as such, that makes one think of something terribly exciting with circuses and pirates. This is the quietest sort of adventure, to use the book’s theme Ber......more

Goodreads review by Ariel

I love this book. It's clean and spare and well written but not self-consciously minimalistic. It's the story of a guy who finds himself addicted to narcotics after a concussion, and finds the ability to stay sober and live one moment at a time in working with his hands, building boats, and serving......more