These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
In his third novel, Paul Harding reimagines Maine’s Malaga Island—a racially integrated community that forcibly removed its residents in 1912—as Apple Island, home to the descendants of a formerly enslaved man and his Irish wife who settled there some 100 years prior. Life on the island is shattered with the arrival of a missionary who takes a special interest in one resident who can pass as white while helping government powers in the “cleansing” of the rest of the community. Chaos ensues: residents are displaced, and some are even institutionalized. This Other Eden is a powerfully moving story that depicts the destruction of a home and a way of life. —Meg Zukin
Buy Now: This Other Eden on Bookshop | Amazon
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men
- What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives
- Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
