Statesman Selects: ENON by Paul Harding

Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel Tinkers was hailed as a “masterpiece” (NPR) and appeared on many bestseller and “best of” lists when it was published. His follow-up, Enon, returns to the same New England family and setting to follow a year in the life of Charlie Crosby as he tries to come to terms with a shattering personal tragedy. The novel received tremendous praise long before it hit shelves and we’re very proud to have it as the Statesman Selects pick for September. Be sure to read the Statesman‘s review on Sunday, September 15. Join us here at BookPeople on Thursday, September 19 at 7pm when we have the pleasure of welcoming Harding to the store to read from and sign Enon.

Publisher’s Weekly recently talked to Harding about his process, editing and advice he has for young writers:

PW: With both your books concerning the death of a major character, can you talk about what fascinates you about death and the process of it?

PAUL HARDING: It’s funny because I’m not fascinated with death. I’m fascinated with what’s anachronistically called “metaphysics.” I take my cues from physics or science and the observation that 96% of the universe is not available to our perception. So I’m interested in the greater whole of which we are a part, but cannot perceive. That makes death an interesting threshold. It fascinates me in the context of our mortality. It’s a great backdrop. It sets our eminence in release against the omega point of our mortal career. It’s this absolute value that I create narratively and aesthetically—it’s a powerful subject to write about. With Charlie in Enon, it all takes place in his head, these are projections, it becomes the psychology and emotional tectonics of grief, and he invents this other Enon in which he repatriates his daughter and he joins her there and that’s how he negotiates her passing. The idea is that her absence is as specific to and as highly articulated as her presence.

Copies of Enon are currently available on our shelves and via bookpeople.com. We’re also taking orders for signed copies.