The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Back to regular programming. I’ve been slowly dipping my toes back into reading and rediscovered what all readers know – books, and reading, are a vital survival tool. A way to get through what can be, may be, is, an overwhelming world right now.

I picked up the The Orchardist based on a friend’s recommendation and found it a quiet book which immediately absorbed me. I love ‘quiet’ books – books that pull the reader in with well crafted prose.

At the turn of the 20th Century, William Talmadge is a loner who tends his family’s fruit orchards in the Pacific Northwest. One day, two skittish and half-starved young girls, both pregnant, descend upon his orchard scavenging for food. He leaves plates of food and he sets out bedding in a cabin for them, but they prefer to sleep outdoors. Slowly the girls recognize that Talmadge is a kind man and start to interact with him.

It turns out that the girls, Jane and Della, have escaped a brothel run by a sadistic man who, when he discovers they are gone, goes on a hunt to bring them back. Talmadge must step out of his own safe world, this loner has to engage with others, and enlist help to try and protect the girls and their babies. This sets him on a course that changes his life forever. And it’s quite a life story which unfolds in The Orchardist.

Ms. Coplin’s debut novel has a unique, spare style of writing. There are no quotation marks – but then again there is very little dialogue. Her prose is quietly lovely with a profound sense of place and nature. The imagery of the orchards located in a valley in the Pacific northwest is simply gorgeous.

The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy. The characters are given time to develop, but remain slightly mysterious and imperfect. Because the characters are scarred and detached — their interactions (or their failures to interact) are a key part of the story.

The novel gives us a look at how a non-traditional family comes together. It takes a moving look at the lost chances, the lost opportunities when people who care about one another are not able to fully trust, engage, or evolve.

This is one of those novels that when you put it down, it will take a few moments to return to the real world. It’s a beautiful, moving, yet gritty tale of nature, family and humanity.

If you’re looking to loose yourself in an absorbing novel — I highly recommend The Orchardist.