The Orchardist

By Amanda Coplin

Book Overview

"There are echoes of John Steinbeck in this beautiful and haunting debut novel. . . . Coplin depicts the frontier landscape and the plainspoken characters who inhabit it with dazzling clarity." -- Entertainment Weekly

"A stunning debut. . . . Stands on par with Charles Frazier's COLD MOUNTAIN." -- The Oregonian (Portland)

New York Times Bestseller - A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post - Seattle Times - The Oregonian - National Public Radio - Kirkus Reviews - Publishers Weekly - The Daily Beast

At once intimate and epic, The Orchardist is historical fiction at its best, in the grand literary tradition of William Faulkner, Marilynne Robinson, Michael Ondaatje, Annie Proulx, and Toni Morrison.

In her stunningly original and haunting debut novel, Amanda Coplin evokes a powerful sense of place, mixing tenderness and violence as she spins an engrossing tale of a solitary orchardist who provides shelter to two runaway teenage girls in the untamed American West, and the dramatic consequences of his actions.

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, 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 crafts an astonishing novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062188518
• ISBN13: 9780062188519
• Release Date: March 2013
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Peel back time and glimpse into a viridescent orchard that ebbs with lore, loves and majesty.

I enjoyed the uniqueness of the story and place. Envious of the monstrous quiet. Intrigued by the daily work of orchard life. Characters make the story and the orchard itself is a “pretty” character.

I want more!

This book changed me, and I think she should write more books. The profound love between Talmadge, his orchard, and the girls is beyond moving.

The Orchardist is a work of art.

Amanda Coplin the author took 8 years of her life and put it into The Orchardist. You can feel all those years with every line you read. The book is quiet and dynamic at the same time. A man tending the orchard takes in two displaced young females he finds on his property. All of their lives are changed. I'm an endings person and the ending is perfect for this book. Not sloppy sentimental all is wonderful ending or a really dark ending either. You will love this book.