Following the “Searching for Maura” piece on the Blog, and the ghastly and misguided mutilation of corpses by the Smithsonian, I highly recommend Paul Harding’s latest novel, “This Other Eden.” It deals with the true story of Apple Island, which the Maine authorities simply cleared of inhabitants (because as the descendants of a former slave and an Irish woman) they were considered mixed race and therefore undesirable. Some were undesirable enough for Maine to arrest and commit them to institutions for the “feeble minded” and “sexually immoral.” This was all done in 1911-1912, during the heyday of the eugenics movement.
The book has been longlisted for the very prestigious Booker prize for 2023. Harding already won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Tinkers.”
Following the “Searching for Maura” piece on the Blog, and the ghastly and misguided mutilation of corpses by the Smithsonian, I highly recommend Paul Harding’s latest novel, “This Other Eden.” It deals with the true story of Apple Island, which the Maine authorities simply cleared of inhabitants (because as the descendants of a former slave and an Irish woman) they were considered mixed race and therefore undesirable. Some were undesirable enough for Maine to arrest and commit them to institutions for the “feeble minded” and “sexually immoral.” This was all done in 1911-1912, during the heyday of the eugenics movement.
The book has been longlisted for the very prestigious Booker prize for 2023. Harding already won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Tinkers.”
https://wwnorton.Com/books/9781324036296