Awards

• Commended for Man Booker Prize (Novel) 2023
• Commended for National Book Awards (Fiction) 2023
• Short-listed for Man Booker Prize (Novel) 2023

Overview

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers, a novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast. In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys' descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland. During the tumultuous summer of 1912, Matthew Diamond, a retired, idealistic but prejudiced schoolteacher turned missionary, disrupts the community's fragile balance through his efforts to educate its children. His presence attracts the attention of authorities on the mainland who, under the influence of the eugenics-thinking popular among progressives of the day, decide to forcibly evacuate the island, institutionalize its residents, and develop the island as a vacation destination. Beginning with a hurricane flood reminiscent of the story of Noah's ark, the novel ends with yet another ark. In prose of breathtaking beauty and power, Paul Harding brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters: Iris and Violet McDermott, sisters raising three Penobscot orphans; Theophilus and Candace Larks and their brood of vagabond children; the prophetic Zachary Hand to God Proverbs, a Civil War veteran who lives in a hollow tree; Ethan Honey, a young artist; and Bridget Carney, an Irish housemaid. A spellbinding story of resistance and survival, This Other Eden is an enduring testament to the struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of intolerance and injustice.

Full Product Details

9798212514217

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Reviews

"""[An] understated yet wrenching story."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""A brief book that carries the weight of history. A moving account of community and displacement."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""A harrowing tale of paradise lost and a lyrical examination of people in isolation just trying to get by."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Superb...This gorgeously limned portrait about family bonds, the loss of innocence, the insidious effects of racism, and the innate worthiness of individual lives will resonate long afterward."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"""

Author Information

Paul Harding is the author of several books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers. He is director of the MFA program in creative writing and literature at Stony Brook University, Edoardo Ballerini is a two-time winner of the Audio Publisher Association's Best Male Narrator Award, a two-time winner of Society of Voice Arts Awards, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019.

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