At the Edge of the Orchard

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These letters track his road west and eventually to California where he becomes a collector of trees for William Lobb, an Englishman who sends saplings and seeds back home to collectors who wish to see Redwoods and Sequoias growing on their estates. Chevalier tells a fierce, beautifully crafted story in At the Edge of the Orchard, her most graceful and richly imagined work yet. But I shouldn't have worried with Tracy Chevalier as every one of her books that I have read have been strong and excellent reading. Chevalier does not hurry her revelations; the novel is almost halfway through before the buried secrets are even hinted at: “Robert had tried to lead an honest life, even when surrounded by dishonest people, but no matter how cleanly he lived now, he had made one mistake that he could never escape.

And a boy who decides to to marry a hooker just because she told him she was pregnant with his child knowing he doesn't love her and never will. It is also, in part, a very American tale showing how a nation grew from the blood, sweat and tears of individual settlers; the farmers and gold miners, the whores, gamblers, visionaries and commercial risk takers.I'm a little bit obsessed with stories that have some sort of forestry or agriculture in them and this one really ticked all of the right boxes for me. There are so many things that happen throughout the course of the story that are tragic or sad or just plain awful. John and Sadie transfer from Connecticut; John's hope is that he can support his family with his apple orchard. Life is harsh in the swamp, and as fever picks off their children, husband and wife take solace in separate comforts.

I'd love to imagine that Tracy Chevalier may take up this story once again some day, so that the reader could follow Robert and his family on their journeys. In the midst of it all, Robert finds himself settling his past debts and adjusting to his life, striking a claim to a future of his own making and choosing.Molly, who appears in the second half of the novel brings a welcome and refreshing, even uplifting boost to this novel. I kept reading and thinking it couldn't possibly get worse between these two, and then something more would pop up as James and Sadie told their story in alternating POVs. Eaters are sweet and good as the name suggests, the spitters on the other hand are fit only for making cider and in its stronger distillation, applejack. The Goodenough family have moved to the Black Swamp, with the hope that they can establish an orchard of apples.

And then there are the giant trees of the west: people looking for new lives where the sky is the limit. Sadie and several of her children were frankly repulsive, and even James, portrayed as a decent enough chap struggling to make a life in a deeply unhospitable land in severely straightened circumstances, did not hesitate to beat his wife and children. The Last Runaway, Remarkable Creatures and Girl with a Pearl Earring an international bestseller that has sold over five million copies and won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. Little Martha remains in the Black Swamp, and we get a window into her life through her own letters sent over the years in the hope of reaching Robert, whilst she herself painstakingly salts away every dime she can earn to fund her own journey west.Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. I did wonder initially if I was going to enjoy it - I thought it was a bit of a rework of its predecessor, and there was a certain amount of quilting detail . It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. It is a truly bleak, inhospitable environment with bitter winters and the summer swamp fever ruthlessly claiming so many lives year in year out.