At the Edge of the Orchard

ΓÇ£With impeccable research and flawless prose,Chevalier perfectly conjures the grandeur of the pristine Wild West . . . and the everyday adventurersΓÇömale and femaleΓÇöwho were bold enough or foolish enough to be drawn to the unknown. She crafts for us an excellent experience.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöUSA Today From internationally bestselling author Tracy Chevalierauthor of A Single Threadcomes a riveting drama of a pioneer family on the American frontier 1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck ΓÇô in the muddystagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of landbuying 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 applesreminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the applejack they makean 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 behindhe has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solacecollecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so fareven in Americaand when RobertΓÇÖs 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 fiercebeautifully crafted story in At the Edge of the Orchardher most graceful and richly imagined work yet.