The first volume of Tsuge Tadao's quasi-autobiographical account of his life living on a river outside of Tokyo, on a homemade houseboat, translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, of course.  Boat Life 1 brings readers 320 pages of manga plus a 27-page essay, "Garo Gone Fishin'", by Holmberg. 

Here's the description provided by the publisher, Floating World Comics:

Serialized between 1996 and 2000, Boat Life stars novelist Tsuda Kenta, a lightly veiled stand-in for the artist, Tsuge Tadao, himself, as he pursues a life of reprieve and reverie on a small, makeshift house boat on a river outside of Tokyo. Based loosely on the artist’s own daily life, this charming story follows the hapless protagonist on a series of magical absurdist quests, featuring a panoply of personable characters, including a drunkard fisherman, a pervy monk, a talking corpse, a senile hermit, and a half-supportive, half-doubtful wife and adult son. Most of the scenes take place on the Tonegawa River in Chiba, a favorite fishing spot of Tsuge’s. Others occur at the artist’s home or at Joker, a jeans and apparel shop the Tsuges opened in 1977.

While fans of Trash Market and Slum Wolf will enjoy this late-career elaboration of après-guerre themes Tsuge has been exploring since his debut in the legendary alt-manga magazine Garo in the late ‘60s, fans of his brother Tsuge Yoshiharu’s The Man Without Talent will appreciate the more relaxed and optimistic take on middle-aged reclusion and the grind of work and family.

Features a 27 page essay section including: Garo Gone Fishin’ by translator Ryan Holmberg, Days Fishing and Cartooning by Tsuge Tadao and Boat Dreams by Tsuge Tadao.

Volume  2 now available... here.