Tinkers

This debut novel by Paul Harding is published by a small publisher and has been hand-sold.  Yet it won a Pulitzer Prize last year for fiction.  Tinkers tells the story of George, as he lays dying and of his thoughts about his father.  George is surrounded by his family, his wife, his children, and his grandchildren in a hospital bed in his living room.  He feels his body changing as each hour passes closer to his final hour.  Time is marked by the many ticking clocks George has on his walls. He became a clock repairer in his retirement.  He knows the ins and outs of clocks and he describes and compares their functions to various times in his life.  He thinks about his father who was a tinker.  His father repaired cooking pots and sold household goods door to door with his mule and wagon.  The characters feel very real.  The writing is poetic and philosophical. Tinkers may not be a well-known book but it is well worth reading.