My first surprise was that Laurence Fearnley is a female, my second was that there was such a sense of place in THE HUT BUILDER that I was transported back to the three days I spent in the heart of Mackenzie Country at The Hermitage mid-winter in 2011 surrounded by the very mountains that inspired her story. Boden is suffocating in his grief-stricken home after the death of his older brothers has driven his mother into a depression that she never recovers from. Boden moves in with his neighbours and it is while he is living with them that he is taken to the scenery that inspires him to write poetry. However it is not until his early twenties when trapped by a blizzard in an ice cave in the company of the reticent Walter that Boden finally grows up; learns his meaning of life and becomes a nationally known poet. It is a slowly paced story, subtle in its depiction of laid back country life where men do not talk about their problems and do not show their emotions, but just get on with life. Boden found his outlet for his passion – his poetry. As he relates his story there is one excerpt that stood out and spoke to me – it is from Chapter 14 and

Sir Edmund Hillary (yes the real life person has a cameo appearance) has just taken Boden on his one and only mountain climb up one of the easier routes on Mt Cook:

“…The first rays of sun touched the peaks and ridges and the sky was suddenly drenched in salmon pink. As far as the eye could see, the tops were bathed in warm skin tones whereas on the snow slopes and cliff faces beneath us everything was slate-black. I couldn’t believe that anyone – not even a man who had climbed the highest mountain in the world – could ever grow blasé about being, simply, in the mountains…”

Given that Laurence Fearnley is a woman, she has an uncanny ability to write convincingly in a masculine voice.
Boden Black is the youngest son of a butcher in small town Fairlie. His world is narrow and close. He draws a picture of a mother who is depressed following the loss of all her other children through multiple miscarriages and eventually war. Boden seeks solace and laughter with a neighbouring family. It is with Dudley that Boden experiences true joy for the first time on seeing the MacKenzie Basin. Here begins Boden's love of words, his poetry which provides an avenue to express his innermost thoughts.
We follow Boden as a shocking revelation is made, as he learns his father's trade and as he forges new friendships on the slopes of Mount Cook.
This is a reflective tale which conjures the remarkable views in this area of the South Island and also the solitariness that can be experienced there.
This is so beautifully written that one experiences the shocks and surprises as Boden does. This book explores how upbringing moulds our ability to relate to others and yet nature provides the outlet for the inner soul. ( )

Set in Fairlie the story follows Bogden growing up in NZ 1940's.