About The Orchardist
• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 5, 2013)
A Best Book of the Year
Washington Post • Seattle Times • The Oregonian National Public Radio • Amazon • Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly • The Daily Beast
An Indie Next Pick
A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick
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, Amanda 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 in The Orchardist she crafts 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.
About Amanda Coplin
Amanda Coplin was born in Wenatchee, Washington. She received her BA from the University of Oregon and MFA from the University of Minnesota. A recipient of residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the Omi International Arts Center at Ledig House in Ghent, New York, she lives in Portland, Oregon.
Find out more at Amanda’s website and connect with her on Facebook.
Amanda’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, March 5th: Book Club Classics!
Thursday, March 7th: Book Snob
Friday, March 8th: Unabridged Chick
Tuesday, March 12th: A Bookish Affair
Thursday, March 14th: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
Friday, March 15th: 5 Minutes For Books
Saturday, March 16th: Unabridged Chick
Monday, March 18th: The Betty and Boo Chronicles
Tuesday, March 19th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf
Wednesday, March 20th: Raging Bibliomania
Thursday, March 21st: Becca’s Byline
Monday, March 25th: Amused By Books
Tuesday, March 26th: A Library of My Own
Wednesday, March 27th: Silver’s Reviews
Thursday, March 28th: Between the Covers
Friday, March 29th: missris
Monday, April 1st: Lit and Life
Tuesday, April 2nd: Paperback Princess
Elizabeth says
This book is FABULOUS.