This Other Eden: Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2023

This Other Eden by Paul Harding is set over more than a century, beginning in 1792. Benjamin Honey, formerly enslaved, and his Irish wife, Patience, find an island where they hope to build a life together, laying the foundations for a community that continues beyond their own time.

More than a hundred years later, the Honeys’ descendants remain on the island, living alongside an eccentric and diverse group of neighbours. During a tumultuous summer at the dawn of the twentieth century, the arrival of a prejudiced missionary unsettles the community’s fragile balance, with consequences that endure.

Key details

• By Paul Harding
• Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2023

Synopsis

This Other Eden traces an island community founded by Benjamin Honey and Patience, returning more than a century later to follow the lives of their descendants. As the islanders live among a diverse band of neighbours, a missionary’s arrival disrupts their precarious equilibrium. The story explores hopes, dreams and resilience in the face of a world described as brutally intolerant of difference.