Why read Tinkers?

Book cover of Tinkers

Book description

An old man lies dying. Confined to bed in his living room, he sees the walls around him begin to collapse, the windows come loose from their sashes, and the ceiling plaster fall off in great chunks, showering him with a lifetime of debris: newspaper clippings, old photographs, wool jackets,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Tinkers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Heidi Matonis

Author

I loved the imagination and inner thoughts of the dying protagonist.

I believe the central question Harding wants the reader to contemplate is: what is our reality–our past and memories we carry, or is it just the physical place at that one moment in time? I think the author makes a convincing case that we are so much more than we appear.

From Heidi's list on The best smart thrillers for women.

Claire R. McDougall

Author

Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was the first novel published by a tiny press in NYC that operated out of the unlikely venue of Bellevue Hospital. So, it already does not fit the mold for a Pulitzer winner. But open its cover, and you are in for a literary treat.

I can count on one hand the books that I re-read, but I do so with this book every so often because it is rich in texture and meaning.

First line: “George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died.” It is a moving…

From Claire's 3 favorite reads in 2023.