At the Edge of the Orchard

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Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. When I read the Acknowledgements, I found that Lobb and Veitch are real people and that there are real places and events that took place in California and England. Their fighting takes its toll on all of the Goodenoughs – a battle that will resonate over the years and across America.

It is a truly bleak, inhospitable environment with bitter winters and the summer swamp fever ruthlessly claiming so many lives year in year out. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder.

It is here in this section on Robert that I got a sense of the history that Chevalier skillfully depicts .

This was a cleverly constructed book, which didn't reveal what had actually happened in the eponymous orchard until quite a long way into the book.

We also learn about swamp fever and how it easily took the lives of some of James and Sadie’s children, which possibly explains a part of why James loves his trees and Sadie hates them. Either Tracy has lost her touch, or she's in the middle of developing a new style that isn't ready yet. Her latest novel, A SINGLE THREAD, tells the story of an English woman between the Wars who forges an independent life in Winchester. The heartbreaking series of letters that Robert sends back home, every New Year's Day are exquisite in their simplicity, but also so very moving and there is a whole story written between the lines.