Elsewhere, Otherwise: The Herbert Hopegood Chronicles Book II

Herbert Hopegood, having found little success in most undertakings that survival necessitates, gives life another go in the remote mountain village of Walnut Ridge to which he moves with his fellow non-winners Pascal, tutor Norrland and Granny Matti. Eternally pessimistic and prone to melancholy, Herbert and his far more enthusiastic companions begin building a new life. But as they realise soon enough, shelter is not the same thing as a refuge and neither is quiet village life devoid of existential struggle.