Book: The Orchard
Author: Peter Heller
Pages: 229
This is my 55th read for the year
This is the story of Frith. She lives with her mother in a rustic cabin in the woods. Frith - age 7 - is mostly homeschooled, only attending a brick and mortar school once a week, and she and her mother live basically off the grid. Before moving to the woods, Hayley - Frith's mom - was a translator of peotry from the Chinese Tang dynasty. Wanting to get away from the stress and pressures of the job, she took her daughter and all but disappeared. Barely getting by, one day a woman named Rose happens upon their cabin and is quickly becomes a friend to both Hayley and Frith. And when their lives are shattered by tragedy, Frith is not sure she will ever be the same.
This was a pretty good read. I liked all three women - they are well developed and easily liked. There is a back and forth a bit from future and past as Frith unfolds her story - now an adult - and how it led to where she is today. It is eloquently written, but it doesn't really go anywhere for most of the book. It is a bit of just the mundane story of these three women doing their everyday work. Frith telling the story looking back and how it shaped the life she now had was unique, but all we get is a small snapshot of her childhood for basically this one year. I could have used a little more.
I am not sorry I read it -it was a good summer read. I just wish it had a bit more story.
Stars: 3.5
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