Which novel by Paul Harding won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2010? The answer is Tinkers.
Tinkers, published in 2009, is Paul Harding’s debut novel. It follows George Washington Crosby, an antique-clock repairer lying on his deathbed, as memories and perceptions move through his life and his family’s history. The book uses shifting time, lyrical language, and recurring images of clocks and mechanical objects to examine mortality, memory, and inheritance.
Harding’s win was notable because Tinkers came from Bellevue Literary Press, a small independent publisher rather than a major commercial house. The Pulitzer citation called it a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son transcend their imprisoning lives.
The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson, won the 2013 Pulitzer. Richard Powers’s The Overstory won in 2019, while Enon was a later novel by Paul Harding, published in 2013 and not the prize winner.