Cabin: Off-the-Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman

Henry David Thoreau meets Home Improvement in Hutchison’s charming debut. Dissatisfied with his job as a copy editor in 2010s Seattle and wondering if he might be missing out on a more meaningful life, Hutchison plunked down $7,500 for a decrepit cabin in the Cascade Mountains. Though he’d never touched a power tool in his life, Hutchison and a group of friends set out to restore the building, the last house on a dirt road fittingly named Wit’s End Place. Through a sometimes bumpy series of home repairs—fixing the roof, building a gravel driveway, constructing stairs to the cabin’s loft (“To the average person, the stairs were at most a rustic amalgamation of standard lumber, suitable for a tree house or a chicken coop... [but] they fit. They worked”)—Hutchison discovered a surprise knack for handiwork. Now a carpenter, he chalks up the career change to the six years he and his cohorts worked on the cabin; readers who are similarly curious about the capabilities of a scroll saw will be invigorated by Hutchison’s account. With endearing directness and an infectious can-do spirit, this makes for a sturdy ode to self-discovery. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (Dec.)