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This Other Eden

The lyrical historical novel, shortlisted for The Booker Prize

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About this listen

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

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
This beautifully written and narrated novel is graphic and disturbing and unconscious up so many images of a historic and tragic Island story off the coast of Maine. I thoroughly recommend it.

One island like no other

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Set at the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired by historical events, This Other Eden tells the story of Apple Island: an enclave off the coast of the United States where waves of castaways - in flight from society and its judgment - have landed and built a home..
A lyrically written novel that is based on a shocking true story. First off, Edoardo Ballerini is one of the best voice performers in the world and with this book he cements that reputation. There are a lot of characters here and he captures each one perfectly, even I could follow the almost impressionistic plot closely.
The text itself is true poetry. "and as prehistoric as the first breath that broke upon the waters.....a bleakly calm ocean almost slumbering, dreaming of its own depths......the boy is blessed with a natural patience of tongue."
It is a great listen and I read along which really showed how well written and performed the book is. Recommended.

FRIGHTENGLY RELEVANT TODAY

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An extremely poignant story, made even more hard to grasp as it is based (loosely) on real events.

So beautiful and haunting

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This book was so beautiful, not only did I listen to it, I wanted to read and savour each word. This book will join my list of beloved stories. Bravo Mr Harding; a feat like no other.

Lyrical, spellbinding and disconsolate tale of historical fiction

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I enjoyed this book, which is based on true events. It is beautifully written with lovely descriptive writing about an interesting group of people who formed a small society based on tolerance. How the ‘authorities’ eventually reacted to this is a tale for our times from which we should have learned much.

A Story of Hope and Social Bigotry in early 20th century America

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