A fixer-upper for the soul

Matthew Batt's new memoir 'Sugarhouse' recounts his attempt to turn a former crack house into a place his family could call home.

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In an interview with MPR's Euan Kerr, Batt said that while 'Sugarhouse' describes the renovation, it's really about him and his wife struggling through tough times:

Both of them had lost close family members the year before. Then Batt discovered his grandfather was a secret serial womanizer who had now scandalized his family by taking up with his late wife's nurse.

"At the same time my wife and I weren't going through the best patch in our marriage," he says, "and our best two friends, two couples, were both getting divorced as well. So really everything was crumbling around us. And we decided it was either time to shake hands and just walk away or dig in and see if we couldn't make something last."

Read the full story here.

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