''Masterful . . . has much to say to our times'' Guardian ''A testament of love . . . so real it could make you weep'' New York Times ''A luminous, thought-provoking novel'' Esi Edugyan, author of Washington Black 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. Benjamin Honey- American, Bantu, Igbo- born enslaved- freed or fled at fifteen- aspiring orchardist, arrived on the island with his Irish wife, Patience, and discovered they could make a life together there. More than a century later, the Honeys'' descendants remain, with an eccentric, diverse band of neighbours. Then comes the intrusion of ''civilization'': officials determine to ''cleanse'' the island, and a missionary schoolteacher selects one light-skinned boy to save. The rest will succumb to the authorities'' institutions or cast themselves on the waters in a new Noah''s Ark. 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. ''Harding invites comparisons with authors such as William Faulkner, Robinson and even Elizabeth Strout . . . This Other Eden . . . begs to be widely read'' Spectator
