The Orchardist

Amanda Coplin's first novel is The Orchardist.  I struggled with the title.  Why the "ist' suffix on the job of running an orchard?  We don't call farmers farmists or ranchers ranchists.  Enough about that.  In this story a man named Talmadge is the guy with all the apple and apricot trees.  He came to this land in rural northeast Washington state with his mother and sister when he was a boy in the late 1880's.  Talmadge is a kind, hardworking, quiet yet not anti-social man.  His mother died when he was a teen leaving him to work the orchard and raise his little sister.  This the first in a series of tragedies in this novel.  Several years later, his sister Elsbeth, disappears.  Talmadge never finds out if she left, was abducted or got lost.  He never recovers from this tragedy.  So  30 years later, when a couple of wild, pregnant girls wander onto his property, he does all he can to help them and be responsible for them.  Through a series of tragedies Talmadge makes decisions to assist those who have wandered into his orchard and into his life. This riveting story, although very sad and full of tragedy, paints a colorful portrait of life at the time.