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    The Boatbuilder
    The Boatbuilder
    The Boatbuilder
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Boatbuilder

    Written by Daniel Gumbiner

    Narrated by Shawn Compton

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateDec 18, 2018
    ISBN9781684419388

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    Reviews for The Boatbuilder

    4/5

    25 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      What a sweet story of forgiveness, understanding and finding your way in between stations.
    • 4/5
      This is a work of fiction that puts you in the shoes of an addict. For the first time, I thought I could begin to imagine what struggling with an addiction was like, and how easy it is to slip back from sobriety. Great book, very interesting and sympathetic characters.
    • 5/5
      Berg has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and looks to find a job. He ends up getting one with a man who builds custom boats for clients some of which are involved in illegal activities. His boss Alejandro loves his craft and brings some stability and wisdom into Berg's life. He meets many unique people in the local community. This is a great debut novel with fully developed characters and a very realistic slice of life plot.
    • 4/5
      I only heard of this when it was longlisted for the National Book Award. The library queue was quite long (largely due to the few copies available).It was worth the wait. I can't believe I have not seen/read more hype for this book. Berg is a 20-something sales guy (or a programmer?) at a tech startup in San Francisco. After suffering a significant concussion, the doctors hand him Rx opioids. And there his real problems begin. He tries rehab, it doesn't work. So he leaves town. His girlfriend has a friend who needs a housesitter while she is out of the country, and Berg goes. To the small coastal town of Talinas (a stand-in for Bolinas?). He finds a job at a yacht club, and then becomes an apprentice to Alejandro, a local boatmaker. Alejandro is very smart, clever, and wise. He teaches Berg about boatbuilding, meditation, acceptance, and more. Berg makes friends and learns more about taking things as they come and asking for/accepting help.This is one of those open-ended books that just stops, without any conclusion. Usually that drives me crazy, but somehow it works here. I can imagine the characters going on in their lives--with ups and downs, setbacks in work and play, and huge successes as well.
    • 4/5
      This is a sweet, good-natured novel in which nothing much happens, but I enjoyed the ride very much. It follows a year or so in the life of a feckless but decent young man grappling with an opioid habit and figuring out what his next steps in life are. The protagonist, Berg, is a bit lost, but he's also a good guy whom you sense will be OK, when his instincts lead him to boat-building and a tight little community as a way to keep himself afloat (zero pun intended, honestly) you can't help but root for him. Ultimately the book is a gentle tribute to the qualities of working with one's hands, learning a craft, talking to your neighbors, and taking your time with what you do. And you can't really argue with that, especially when a book is as nicely written and affable as this one.
    • 4/5
      Consider this novel a Northern Exposure (American television series) type of read where the characters are unique and the location of Talinas, California is like an island unto itself. A small town, where everyone seems to know each other. It is an escape people seem to gravitate to in order to start over, heal or simply get lost. "Berg", the novel's main character, arrives in Talinas as an out of work, out of rehab Millenial who believes getting away from the big city will defuse his addiction to opiates. Yet, his appetite persists and it's through the soulful guidance of his employer, Alejandro, that he finds his life's calling. Well, his life's calling at the moment, for it seems the book is a reflection on the fact that life is a journey. Whether searching for happiness, safety, love, for purpose, we all need to find our way. At the conclusion, eight year old Tess hopes to "have things figured out" by the age of 28. Yet, that's not always the case. Everyone has a different timeline and obstacles abound to steer one away from the anticipated goal forcing one to forge a new and unanticipated road. It's a heavy thought, brought to you by this quiet and gentle read where not much seems to happen but the undertow, though not heavy handed, is engaging.