Tinkers
Paul Harding · b. 1967 · USA
Why it matters
A dying New England clock-repairer's final hours of consciousness dissolve into memories of his own epileptic, peddler father, compressing an entire rural lineage into one deathbed. Rejected by every major publisher, Harding's slim debut won the Pulitzer regardless.
At a glance
psychological novelphilosophical novel
Difficulty 6/10slow pace191 pagesDense, nonlinear, meditative prose blurs whose consciousness (father's or son's) is narrating at any given moment.
Deep dive
A dying man's last hours, told through the mechanism of the clocks he's spent his life repairing — and what breaks down first, the machine or the memory.
