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This Other Eden

The lyrical historical novel, shortlisted for The Booker Prize

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This Other Eden

By: Paul Harding
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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Brought to you by Penguin.

In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. More than a century later, the Honeys' descendants remain, with an eccentric, diverse band of neighbours. But during one tumultuous summer at the dawn of the twentieth century, one prejudiced missionary lands on the island's shores, disrupting the community's fragile balance with everlasting consequences.

Full of lyricism and power, Paul Harding's This Other Eden explores the hopes and dreams and resilience of those seen not to fit a world brutally intolerant of difference.



'Masterful . . . has much to say to our times' Guardian

'Begs to be read' Spectator

'A luminous, thought-provoking novel' Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black

©2023 Paul Harding (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 African American Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction
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Critic Reviews

The Pulitzer prize-winning author's gifts have found their fullest expression . . . [This Other Eden] impresses time and again because of the depth of Harding's sentences, their breathless angelic light
Masterful . . . This Other Eden is a story of good intentions, bad faith, worse science, but also a tribute to community and human dignity and the possibility of another world. In both, it has much to say to our times
Harding's new novel is suffused with the tremulous imagery and soaring imagination that won him the Pulitzer Prize . . . Exquisite (Financial Times)
Masterful . . . This Other Eden is a story of good intentions, bad faith, worse science, but also a tribute to community and human dignity and the possibility of another world. In both, it has much to say to our times.
Harding's new novel is suffused with the tremulous imagery and soaring imagination that won him the Pulitzer Prize . . . Exquisite.
Rich and full-bodied in its lyricism, Harding's novel, too, is part warning, part memorial, but perhaps above all, reinforces the power of art to bring us into sympathy with strangers' lives.
Harding invites comparisons with authors such as William Faulkner, Robinson and even Elizabeth Strout . . . This Other Eden . . . begs to be widely read.
This Other Eden is ultimately a testament of love: love of kin, love of nature, love of art, love of self, love of home . . . The humans he has created are, thankfully, not flattened into props and gimmicks, which sometimes happens when writers work across time and difference; instead they pulse with aliveness, dreamlike but tangible, so real it could make you weep.
Powerful . . . a moving indictment of a shocking episode in America's past that is rendered in lyrical prose.
[Harding] writes with the gravitas of a mythmaker . . . The pace of Harding's storytelling is stately, his descriptions, even of small events, gorgeous . . . This Other Eden is beautiful and agonizing.
All stars
Most relevant
It's rare that a book moves me to tears but I was weeping at the end of this one. exquisite writing, plausible story....so worth reading and rereading

beautiful

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Beautifully crafted book about a cruel, sad & forgotten episode in history. Excellent narration enriches the writing. Wonderful

Beautiful Story

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Like Tinkers, I loved this book, listening to it twice. Harding’s prose is stunningly lyrical, the story telling of the cruelty and stupidity of racism, and the characters are full of life and complexity. The author paints the scenes and people so masterly, you can practically see them.

Heart breaking, beautiful, cruel

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I’m listening to the titles on the Booker long list and this is one of my favourites. I keep thinking about it. Haunting story, beautifully read

Heartbreaking

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Having greatly enjoyed Harding’s Tinkers, I looked forward to reading his latest novel. It doesn’t disappoint. Like Tinkers, it too tells with a poignant simplicity the tale of people caught in the cross fires of the prejudice of their times. By the end, I wanted to know more, like what happened to Ethan, but leaving left wanting perhaps contributed to the enjoyment.

A moving tale

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.