Hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes expected across the state.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Paul Harding says it’s no accident that the residents of the small interracial community he imagined for his new book are uprooted from their island home at the same time as the first International Eugenics Congress was being held in London. In fact, learning about the conference inspired him to write his book. 

, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that was one of the first racially integrated towns in the northeastern United States. Populated by Native Americans, freed slaves and European Americans, the inhabitants led a sheltered — some would say naïve — life, unaware of the uniqueness of their situation. 

Their community was shattered in 1911, when Maine government officials inspected the island and found the mixed races offensive. All 47 residents of Malaga were evicted, and some were rehoused in institutions for the "feeble-minded."

 for this deed in 2010. But the real-life story inspired Harding to imagine what it would have been like for the inhabitants to be displaced from their own private Eden, even as the world debated how to cull the weak from the herd, and who is worthy of salvation. 

Displacement is an archetype, Harding told MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. The Israelites were forced out of Egypt, humanity out of the Garden of Eden. “It’s essentially human,” he says, “as old as humanity but also as contemporary as this morning.” Who gets to decide the norms? If some groups live on the margins, who set the boundaries? Don’t miss this thoughtful and introspective conversation. 

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on 

for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Shows

Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Host

Author

In his latest novel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding reimagines the history of a small interracial community’s devastating eviction from their isolated, island home. 

Paul Harding explores the archetype of displacement in 'This Other Eden'

Go Deeper.

Like this?