Tinkers_Harding
2011 Longlist

Tinkers

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

An old man lies dying. Confined to bed in his living room, he sees the walls around him begin to collapse, the windows come loose from their sashes, and the ceiling plaster fall off in great chunks, showering him with a lifetime of debris: newspaper clippings, old photographs, wool jackets, rusty tools, and the mangled brass works of antique clocks. Soon, the clouds from the sky above plummet down on top of him, followed by the stars, till the black night covers him like a shroud. He is hallucinating, in death throes from cancer and kidney failure.

A methodical repairer of clocks, he is now finally released from the usual constraints of time and memory to rejoin his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler, whom he had lost seven decades before. In his return to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in the backwoods of Maine, he recovers a natural world that is at once indifferent to man and inseparable from him, menacing and awe inspiring.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Paul
Harding

Paul Harding is the author of Tinkers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Enon. He is director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, and lives on Long Island, New York. Photo Credit: Sam Harding

Paul Harding is the author of Tinkers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Enon. He is director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, and lives on Long Island, New York. Photo Credit: Sam Harding

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Tinkers is an exquisitely written novel that captures the mysteries of relationships, memories and time passing in language, that is both spare and lyrical. It is a true gem that sparkles with thoughtfulness, intelligence and life.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
United States
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Bellevue Literary Press

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