Set in the untamed American West, this is a highly original and haunting debut novel about a makeshift family whose dramatic lives are shaped by violence, love, and an indelible connection to the land.
At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, an orchardist named Talmadge carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century. A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, as well as in the quiet, beating heart of the land—the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenage sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.
One day, while in town to sell his fruit at the market, two girls, barefoot and dirty, steal some apples. Later, they appear on his homestead, cautious yet curious about the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, Jane and her sister Della take up on Talmadage's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Yet just as the girls begin to trust him, brutal men with guns arrive in the orchard, and the shattering tragedy that follows sets Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them, putting himself between the girls and the world, but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
Writing with breathtaking precision and empathy, Amanda Coplin has crafted 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. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, she weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune, bound by their search to discover the place they belong. At once intimate and epic, evocative and atmospheric, filled with haunting characters both vivid and true to life, and told in a distinctive narrative voice, The Orchardist marks the beginning of a stellar literary career.
- Read-Along eBooks for Children
- Get Hooked on a Series- eBook
- Winter Reading
- eBook Shorts: Your Favorite Stories, but Shorter
- Percy Jackson Collection
- Graphic Novels & Comics
- Romance in the Middle, Ages That Is
- Living on the Edge
- Is It True Dukes Have More Fun?
- Danielle Steel eBooks
- True Stories of World War II
- Biographies of Early Americans - eBooks
- Shifting Sands
- See all
- Read by the Author
- Short Stories for Short Commutes
- Have You Listened to the Most Popular Titles in the Collection?
- Winter Listening
- Percy Jackson Collection
- Animals on Audiobooks
- Audiobooks the Whole Family Will Enjoy...
- Audie Award Winners
- Oldies But Goodies
- Get Hooked on a Series- Audio
- Audiobooks You Might Have Missed
- Listen and Learn
- Listen & Learn: Science Nonfiction
- See all
- 2021 Library Reads
- 2022-2023 Great Stone Face Short List
- 2022-2023 Isinglass Award Short List
- 2022-2023 Flume Award Short List
- 2018-2022 Ladybug Award Nominees
- Romance Award Winners
- 2020 Library Reads
- Edgar Award Winners
- 2019 Library Reads
- Sci-Fi and Fantasy Award Winners
- 2018 Library Reads
- Book Shimmy Awards
- 2017 Library Reads
- See all
- Travel Magazines
- News Magazines
- Heath & Fitness Magazines
- Gardening and Outdoor Living Magazines
- Popular Magazines
- House and Home Magazines
- Tech and Gaming Picks
- Magazines for History Lovers
- Crafts & Hobbies Magazines
- Food & Wine Magazines
- Delving Into Your Devices
- Magazines for Science Enthusiasts
- Hobby magazines
- See all