At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

At the Edge of the Orchard is Tracy Chevalier’s newest work of historical fiction.   I was recently in Santa Cruz, California and had a chance to spend most of the day at Bookstore Santa Cruz, a large and very welcoming independent bookstore that had just hosted Tracy Chevalier on March 23^rd. There, she discussed her new book which tells the story of the Goodenough family – first in 1838 in the Black Swamp of Ohio.  That miserable place is described in alternating chapters by husband and wife, James and Sadie.  He is obsessed with fruit trees, planting samplings supplied by Johnny Appleseed Chapman and teaching his son, Robert, how to graft Golden Pippins, a family favorite originally brought all the way from England.  Sadie, in contrast, is a sad, lonely and frustrated woman often drunk on the applejack and hard cider they make.  She relies on her young daughters to cook, clean and maintain some semblance of family life. Later, At the Edge of the Orchard shifts locale and time to California, just post the Gold Rush.  It is there that son Robert has travelled and where he now works as a tree agent. 

I found the story to be a bit slow and the setting and characters not very likeable, but Chevalier does a masterful job of conveying the difficulties and uncertainties of pioneer life. While I honestly enjoyed Chevalier’s earlier works more (including The Girl with a Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures), At the Edge of the Orchard received a starred review from Library Journal.

Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht

Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht is a slightly “edgy” book that will have wide appeal.  The setting is contemporary rural Pennsylvania and the story begins with the power and telephones getting knocked out.  It seems there is a terrorist hiding in the area and all access roads are blocked and monitored by law enforcement so that no-one can leave or enter. Residents are given incomplete information and become increasingly agitated. 

I read Relief Map in one day – totally sharing in the anger, frustration, boredom, and confusion faced by the characters. Livy, Nelson, Dominic and Brian are the four teens primarily featured in the story, although Rosalie Knecht also relays how some of their parents and local shop keepers deal with the oppressive circumstances and increasing tension with the police.  "'This won’t be over until they get him,' Ron said…. 'If they leave without him, they lose, and they're not going to be the ones to lose. I guarantee you that.'" Knecht uses simple, everyday situations to convey the characters’ feelings: “Livy could not concentrate on the magazines, and as the night grew later and she felt no urge to sleep, her anxiety began to rise again.” I marked numerous passages and thought that Livy’s internal conversations were deftly rendered: “you could make the wrong decisions in such small pieces that by the time you realized what you were doing, it was too late.”

Relief Map has been described as a “languid thriller” and a coming of age story, especially for Livy. Literature circles and book groups will find much to discuss. I am purposefully not saying more about the several intertwined plot threads (and the difficult choices about what constitutes good and bad) because I do not want to detract from the suspense and secrets, some well-hidden and some newly discovered. 

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson.

Are you wishing for new episodes of Downton Abbey? If so, be sure to read The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson.  She wrote Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (a personal favorite) about five years ago.  Similarly, The Summer Before the War is an introspective, relatively gentle read, but it will surprise readers as values and morals of Edwardian era England are cleverly questioned.    

Simonson sets her latest novel in Rye, Sussex during 1914 and battles the constraints of the time regarding gender, same-sex relationships, social class, and foreign refugees through the eyes of characters like:

• Beatrice Nash, young schoolteacher forced to flee a stifling family situation after her professor father’s death;
• Hugh Grange, medical student, hopeful for a Harley Street practice and marriage to his mentor’s daughter;
• Daniel Bookham, Hugh’s cousin, an aspiring poet who adores Craigmore, son of Lord North;
• Celeste, young and beautiful, but troubled, refugee from Belgium;
• Agatha Kent, Beatrice’s patron, local committee woman and planner extraordinaire
• Bettina Fothergill, wife of Rye’s mayor and Agatha’s frequent nemesis

Simonson’s caustic observations, though often subtle, are beautifully written and, again, reminiscent of the droll wit exhibited on Downton Abbey: “cheerful company is as welcome to melancholy as lemon juice on a burn” or “Cook gave Lady Emily’s footman two jars [of preserves] large enough to appear gracious but not so large as to suggest an abundant larder able to supple jars every time someone paid a compliment.”

As war builds, Simonson explores the motivations and methods to recruit soldiers, takes major characters to the front lines and describes the fighting in addition to the stratified treatment of officers and enlisted men.  Overall, The Summer Before the War is an excellently written book, full of social commentary: “’I avoid the papers altogether,’ said Daniel. ‘I am pretty sure wars would be shorter if we weren’t all so eager to read about them.’” Do read The Summer Before the War; it was recommended by Library Reads and received a starred review from Kirkus.