HARD BOTTOM

The story line may be familiar, but Michelsen's novel about a Cape Cod fisherman who gets squeezed by the local fishing economy and then overwhelmed by rampant development is a beautifully written, impeccably crafted book. Rough-hewn Cape Cod native Ollie Cahoon faces his initial crisis when his first mate quits to spend the winter skiing in Maine, compromising Ollie's already precarious existence as a long-line fisherman. With his catch shrinking and the cost of loans and boat repairs threatening his livelihood, Cahoon turns to trawling to make ends meet, but the frayed threads stitching his life together finally snap when his tough but flighty wife Caitlyn tires of their hardscrabble life and the couple separates. Cahoon's ace in the hole is the land left to him and his sister, Erin, by their father, but he steadfastly refuses to sell to a local developer who rallies the community against the fisherman in an effort to build a lucrative mall. As deftly as Michelsen builds the suspense, it is his compassionate character study of a man who understands which way the wind is blowing but refuses to bend that enriches this simply plotted novel. The climactic final events—a boat accident in a storm that forever changes Cahoon's relationship with his wife and her family, and Cahoon's desperate last-ditch effort to save his land—bring the book to a rousing conclusion. This is a riveting tale, charged with honest emotion. (June 29)

Forecast:Local interest will drive sales, and good reviews may attract some non–New England readers.