Wendy Smith, The Washington Post
‘Based on the history of an actual Maine island, This Other Eden tells a tragic story. But Harding’s finely wrought prose shows us a community that refuses to see itself through the judgmental eyes of others, a society composed of people who give their neighbors the same latitude to go their own way that they claim for themselves. It closes on a note of determined hope, with an emblem of continuity and endurance held high above the waters that separate Apple Island from the censorious mainland.’
Susie Mesure, The Spectator
‘Yet Harding writes with the virtuosity of an orchestra conductor, mixing sentences of vastly varying lengths in the way a maestro brings in different sections of his ensemble. The effect can be dizzying: when Esther describes a hurricane that struck in 1815, the prose is furious with the storm’s kinetic energy. If at times he is guilty of overwriting, he is always a delight to read.’
Rachel Seiffert, The Guardian
‘Told in third person, but inhabiting multiple and often competing viewpoints, This Other Eden takes us inside Esther’s defiant penury, Zachary’s visions, Diamond’s “skewed, inexcusable heart”. Whether islander or mainlander, child or adult, each voice is wonderfully clear and distinct.’