This Other Eden (Harding novel)

This Other Eden is a 2023 novel by American writer Paul Harding.

Background
The novel presents a fictionalized version of Maine's Malaga Island, dubbed "Apple Island" in the book. It's based on the historical record of when "Maine forcibly removed all residents of a mixed-race fishing community on a small island off the coast of Phippsburg in 1912."

Harding began the earliest version of the novel by writing a scene featuring Mrs. Hale, a character from his novel Enon. In the scene, Mrs. Hale and members of her family sit in a meadow, and observe an unknown person, inspired by a Charles Ethan Porter painting.

Reception
According to literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly "Rave" reviews. Danez Smith, in a review published by The New York Times, praised Harding's prose. In a review published by the Financial Times, Catherine Taylor also praised Harding's writing.

Writing for The Los Angeles Times, Mark Athitakis compared the book unfavorably to Harding's previous works. Athitakis also wrote that Harding's writing was "fussed over".

The book was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.

Some historians and those with family ties to the island claimed the novel includes harmful myths about the island's residents that historians have tried to correct.