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3.0 

Tinkers

By Paul Harding & Marilynne Robinson
Tinkers by Paul Harding & Marilynne Robinson digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

Special edition featuring a new foreword by Marilynne Robinson and book club extras inside

In this deluxe tenth anniversary edition, Marilynne Robinson introduces the beautiful novel Tinkers, which begins with an old man who lies dying. As time collapses into memory, he travels deep into his past, where he is reunited with his father and relives the wonder and pain of his impoverished New England youth. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, Tinkers is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature.

The story behind this New York Times bestselling debut novel—the first independently published Pulitzer Prize winner since A Confederacy of Dunces received the award nearly thirty years before—is as extraordinary as the elegant prose within it. Inspired by his family’s history, Paul Harding began writing Tinkers when his rock band broke up. Following numerous rejections from large publishers, Harding was about to shelve the manuscript when Bellevue Literary Press offered a contract. After being accepted by BLP, but before it was even published, the novel developed a following among independent booksellers from coast to coast. Readers and critics soon fell in love, and it went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize, prompting the New York Times to declare the novel’s remarkable success “the most dramatic literary Cinderella story of recent memory.”

That story is still being written as readers across the country continue to discover this modern classic, which has now sold over half a million copies, proving once again that great literature has a thriving and passionate audience.

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696 Reviews

3.0
Thumbs Up“The writing was good but god I was bored. I gave up at 24%. I just couldn't do it, y'all. I tried with this book three separate times and I don't think this is one for me. A man tinkers with stuff and tries to give life lessons. It dragged on and on. 1.5 stars.”
“I ended up really loving this. The writing demanded my attention and was almost hypnotic and dreamlike at times, and sometimes very straightforward. In part, this reflected both the story, and the narration, which changed throughout the book between third-person and first-person, between multiple characters, without being announced. Hence the demanding of attention. The story itself is incredibly reflective, and I could see it appealing a little more to an older audience, but I think there's a lot of universal experiences and sentiments that would connect regardless of age. There were more than a few quotes that knocked me off my feet and will stay with me for a long time.”

About Paul Harding

Paul Harding is the author of three novels: the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tinkers, Enon, and the National Book Award and Booker Prize–shortlisted This Other Eden. He is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Emerson College in Boston.

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