At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Tracy Chevalier
• Title: At the Edge of the Orchard
• Publisher: ‎ Viking
• Publication Date: March 2016
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover w/ Library Binding – 289 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0525953000
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0525953005
• Item Weight: ‎ 15.2 ounces
• Dimensions: ‎ 6 x 1 x 8.75 inches
• Book Condition: Used – Very Good (Former library book; may include the markings and stickers associated from the library.)
• Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent (Plastic Library Dust Jacket)

Synopsis:

“With impeccable research and flawless prose, Chevalier perfectly conjures the grandeur of the pristine Wild West . . . and the everyday adventurers—male and female—who were bold enough or foolish enough to be drawn to the unknown. She crafts for us an excellent experience.”

—USA Today

From internationally bestselling author Tracy Chevalier, author of A Single Thread, comes a riveting drama of a pioneer family on the American frontier

1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck – in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property. But the orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples, reminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the applejack they make, an alcoholic refuge from brutal frontier life.

 

1853: Their youngest child Robert is wandering through Gold Rush California. Restless and haunted by the broken family he left behind, he has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solace, collecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so far, even in America, and when Robert’s past makes an unexpected appearance he must decide whether to strike out again or stake his own claim to a home at last.

 

Chevalier tells a fierce, beautifully crafted story in At the Edge of the Orchard, her most graceful and richly imagined work yet.

About the Author:

Tracy Chevalier is the author of 10 novels, including the international bestseller GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

American by birth, British by geography, she lives in London with her husband and son.

Her latest novel, A SINGLE THREAD, tells the story of an English woman between the Wars who forges an independent life in Winchester.

Tracy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has honorary doctorates from her alma maters Oberlin College and the University of East Anglia.

Her website www.tchevalier.com will tell you more about her and her books.