The Orchardist: A Novel [B0382]

2013 french-flap PB with deckled page edges. Best Book of the Year Washington Post, Seattle Times, The Oregonian & National Public Radio. At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit at the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, Amanda Coplin weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune. She writes with breathtaking precision and empathy, and in The Orchardist she crafts an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "A slow burn that I savored all the way through. This is not an action-packed story, but a study of grief, trauma, and found family, set in a time that silently bore all of these miracles and challenges in ways we don't anymore (which is both good and bad in ways). I loved the characters and how they crept into understanding over time, and I loved even more the prose describing both emotions and setting - so many book-pausing sentences. I had to take a few days off after reading this one just to soak it all in."; "I liked the story, relationships, writing, & imagining of local landscape. I thought the relationships portrayed with native people seemed a little unlikely, while their loss of land, language & culture were under explored."; "I certainly hope this impressive novel does not get lumped in with the mass of generic historical fiction because what Coplin accomplishes with this novel puts her in the same category with Stegner, Doig, Cather, and Steinbeck. This is an incredibly wise and perfectly constructed story that refuse to offer platitudes and happy endings. The restrained tone rules the book and keeps the emotions brewing right below the surface. Coplin creates singular characters that show us that the best satisfactions in life are hard earned and accrue over a lifetime of selfless actions."