Hutchinson Heinemann This Other Eden: Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2023

This Other Eden by Paul Harding is a novel set at the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired by historical events. It centres on Apple Island, an enclave off the coast of the United States where waves of castaways, fleeing society and its judgement, have arrived and made a home.

Among them is Benjamin Honey, described as American, Bantu and Igbo, who was born enslaved and freed or fled at fifteen. He comes to the island with his Irish wife, Patience, and finds the possibility of a life built together. More than a century later, the Honeys’ descendants remain alongside an eccentric and diverse community of neighbours, until officials decide to “cleanse” the island and a missionary schoolteacher chooses one light-skinned boy to save.

Key details

• Novel inspired by historical events
• Set at the beginning of the twentieth century
• Author: Paul Harding
• Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
• Publisher: Hutchinson Heinemann

Synopsis

Apple Island is presented as a refuge for people who have been pushed to the margins, where generations build a life beyond the reach of judgement. When representatives of “civilisation” arrive, the community faces an attempt to dismantle what has been made, with the threat of institutions for many and escape by water for others.

The story explores the hopes, dreams and resilience of those deemed not to fit in a world described as brutally intolerant of difference.