Tinkers (novel)

Tinkers
First edition hardcover
AuthorPaul Harding
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherBellevue Literary Press
Publication date
January 1, 2009
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover), e-book
Pages191 pp.
ISBN978-1934137192 (hardcover)

Tinkers is a 2009 first novel by American author Paul Harding. The novel tells the stories of George Washington Crosby, an elderly clock repairman, and of his father, Howard. On his deathbed, George remembers his father, who was a tinker selling household goods from a donkey-drawn cart and who struggled with epilepsy.[1] The novel was published by Bellevue Literary Press, a sister organization of the Bellevue Literary Review.

Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other awards and honors.[2] The Pulitzer board called the novel "a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."[2]

Plot

Tinkers follows George Crosby in the days before he dies and his memories from his childhood. The book takes the reader through both George's life as well as his father's, Howard, who sells home goods from a wagon in New England. The reader learns about George's skill at fixing clocks, which becomes a metaphor for life's beauty as well as its fragility. It is about Howard's struggle with epilepsy as well as his own relationship with his father, who was a minister who fell ill when Howard was a boy. It is a novel that is not only about death, but the gift of simple pleasures of nature and being in the world. It is about fathers and sons, solitude and connection.

Reviews

The Los Angeles Times praised "a writer [who] describes something so well—snow, oranges, dirt—that you can smell it or feel it or sense it in the room."[3] The New Yorker enjoyed Harding's "skillful evocation [and] mosaic of memories".[4] The Boston Globe called the novel a "poignant exploration of where we may journey when the clock has barely a tick or two left and we really can't go anywhere at all."[5] The New York Times failed to review the novel before the Pulitzer Prize announcement, noting that it was the first novel since A Confederacy of Dunces in 1981 to come from a small publisher and win that award.[6]

Awards and honors

Awards

Year Award Category Result Ref.
2009 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize — Shortlisted [7]
Los Angeles Times Book Prize First Fiction Finalist [8]
2010 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize — Won [9]
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Won [2]
2011 International Dublin Literary Award — Longlisted [10]

Honors

Editions

  • Tinkers, New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2009. ISBN 9781934137192 (hardcover)
  • Tinkers, New York: HarperCollins, 2009 (international edition). ISBN 9781554689866 (paperback)
  • Tinkers, New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2019 (10th anniversary edition). ISBN 9781942658603 (paperback)

Notes

  1. ^ Tinkers at Bellevue Literary Press
  2. ^ a b c "2010 Pulitzer Prizes". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  3. ^ Review by Susan Salter Reynolds in The Los Angeles Times, Dec 28, 2008.
  4. ^ "Books Briefly Noted", The New Yorker, Jan 12, 2009
  5. ^ Review by Chris Bohjalian in The Boston Globe, Feb 28, 2009
  6. ^ "The One That Got Away", The New York Times Papercuts blog, April 12, 2010
  7. ^ "2009 First Novel Prize". The Center for Fiction. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  8. ^ "Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2009 | Bookreporter.com". www.bookreporter.com. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  9. ^ kanopi_admin (November 16, 2012). "2010 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowships for Writers". PEN America. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  10. ^ "Tinkers". Dublin Literary Award. September 7, 2024. Retrieved May 13, 2025.
  11. ^ a b The Literary Horologist: Paul Harding “Tinkers” With Time, OpenLoopPress interview
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