Paul Harding Wants Precision
In 2013, Paul Harding’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, Tinkers, arrived like a revelation. How did he capture the arc of his characters’ lives with such brevity and realness? Bring to life a timeless story that seems to be unfolding right now?
Four years ago, I jumped at the opportunity to work with Harding as a BookEnds fellow at Stony Brook University where he’s now the director of the MFA program in creative writing and literature. Harding inspired me with the same intelligence, curiosity, and generosity of spirit found in his books.
His new novel, This Other Eden, is based on the tragic history of a mixed-race settlement on Malaga Island, Maine, which was obliterated by mainlanders in 1911. The novel is so vividly and precisely rendered that it feels like it’s 220 pages long and 1200 pages deep—an effect Harding strives for, as he shared in our recent Zoom conversation.
