This other Eden : a novel

"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers, a novel inspired by the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast. In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys' descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland. During the tumultuous summer of 1912, Matthew Diamond, a retired, idealistic but prejudiced schoolteacher-turned-missionary, disrupts the community's fragile balance through his efforts to educate its children. His presence attracts the attention of authorities on the mainland who, under the influence of the eugenics-thinking popular among progressives of the day, decide to forcibly evacuate the island, institutionalize its residents, and develop the island as a vacation destination. Beginning with a hurricane flood reminiscent of the story of Noah's Ark, the novel ends with yet another Ark. In prose of breathtaking beauty and power, Paul Harding brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters: Iris and Violet McDermott, sisters raising three orphaned Penobscot children; Theophilus and Candace Larks and their brood of vagabond children; the prophetic Zachary Hand to God Proverbs, a Civil War veteran who lives in a hollow tree; and more. A spellbinding story of resistance and survival, This Other Eden is an enduring testament to the struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of intolerance and injustice"-- Provided by publisher A novel inspired by the true story of the once racially integrated Malaga Island off the coast of Maine, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers . In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discovered an island where they could make a life together. More than a century later, the Honeys descendants remain there, with an eccentric, diverse band of neighbors: a pair of sisters raising three Penobscot orphans; Theophilus and Candace Larks and their nocturnal brood; the prophetic Zachary Hand To God Proverbs, a Civil War veteran who carves Biblical images in a hollow tree. Then comes the intrusion of civilization: eugenics-minded state 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 Noahs Ark. Full of lyricism and power, This Other Eden explores the hopes and dreams and resilience of those seen not to fit a world brutally intolerant of difference. from https://www.athenaeum.nl/leesfragmenten/2023/dit-andere-paradijs Dit andere paradijs vertelt het op ware gebeurtenissen gebaseerde verhaal van een eiland waar generaties verschoppelingen hun thuis hebben gebouwd, beginnend bij de Zwarte Benjamin Honey en zijn Ierse vrouw Patience. Ruim een eeuw later wonen hun nazaten nog steeds op Apple Island, samen met een zeer diverse groep buren. Ze zijn arm en lijden vaak honger, maar zijn gevrijwaard van de discriminatie en segregatie die op het vasteland aan de orde van de dag zijn. Tot de idealistische schoolmeester Matthew Diamond de aandacht van de autoriteiten vestigt op de in zijn ogen erbarmelijke omstandigheden, met de gedwongen evacuatie van het eiland tot gevolg. De bewoners gaan onverschrokken op zoek naar een nieuw paradijs.