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.