Hard Bottom: A Novel (Hardscrabble Books) - Softcover

"What sets this off from other New England fishing novels is its ingenious mirror-image plot...a clash of the new Cape economy with the old." - Boston Globe; "Michelsen sets his new novel on Cape Cod and, like John Casey in his wonderful Spartina, puts to good use a lot of his understanding of boats and fishing...This is a solid tale of a man whose self-destructiveness comes together with external circumstances to form a perfect, and perfectly devastating, partnership. Recommended." - Library Journal; "A beautifully written, impeccably crafted book...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...This is a riveting tale, charged with honest emotions." - Publishers Weekly

A commercial fisherman on Cape Cod struggles to get to grips with the destruction of both his trade and his environment. This is the tale of a man whose self-destructiveness comes together with external circumstances to form a perfect, and perfectly devastating, partnership.