The Orchardist

by Amanda Coplin

This is a book that I picked up quite a while ago, the reviews were very good.  However, for some reason I never took it up to read.  I am glad that I finally decided to read it, it is  a book that will stay with me for a long time.

At the turn of the century a reclusive orchardist, who lives in the pacific northwest, finds two you girls, both of whom appear pregnant hanging around his farm.  They won't come into his house but they will eat the food he leaves for them.

Talmadge has had a sad and lonely life.  His mother brought he and his sister to this land but she died young leaving the young people on their own.  And then, one day Talmadge's sister goes for a walk into the woods and never returns.  He is haunted by her absence.

He continues to be kind to the young girls and learns that they have run away from a man who was abusing them, having sex with them and selling them and other girls to men for sex.  Talmadge eventually enlists the help of a woman friend from the town to help to get the girls into his house when they go into labour.  One of the girls was pregnant with twins but loses them both.  The other girl, Jane, gives birth to a a baby girl Angelene.  Jane tries to get Della interested in helping with the girl including nursing her but Della ignores the girl.

One day the man the girls ran away from comes looking for them as someone has told them they are at Talmadge's.  The girls run away into the forest and hang themselves.  Jane dies.  Della almost dies.  Talmadge finds the baby where Della hid it.  He choses to raise the baby and takes good care of her, with advice from his lady friend.

At times some horse rustlers arrive on the property with horses they have captured. Della is very interested in the horses and the wranglers and then goes off with them, against Talmadge's wishes.  Della leads a very independent almost wild life.  She works hustling horses, gambling, cutting down trees.

Talmadge and the child have a good life, he teaches her how to tend the orchard and lets her have her own garden with full independence as to what to grown.  He keeps listening for word of Della and even tries to track her down.  Angelene seems puzzled ad even jealous by the time Talmadge spends thinking about Della.  She has absolutely no interest in Della.

Then he finds out that Della has confessed to a murder and is in jail in a nearby town.  He goes to see her but is not able to see her as she is in isolation for attacking another prisoner (the man who abused her).  Talmadge tries to give her an opportunity to escape from prison but she won't take it as she still wants to kill her abuser.  As a result Talmadge and another man he asked to help receive small jail sentences for plotting to help her escape.  Even when he gets out of prison he worries about Della and is devastated when he finds out she has been killed in an accident at the prison.  When Talmadge dies he leaves all his property to Angelene who sells the farm to a family.  She is shocked when she returns a few years later to find the orchard had been sold and is not well tended.

This was a very interesting book.  Most of the book is told simply in the actions of the characters.  We rarely get an idea as to what they are thinking.  We never really understand what would have caused Della to leave the safety of Talmadge's orchard and care for a life of danger and poverty.   The disregard that Della and Angelene feel for each other is understandable.  Although they are relations they don't really develop any relationship with each other til the end of the book.  This is largely Della's fault, if she had been kind to the child, she might have reciprocated. The contrast of the innocent and kind orchardist and the wild, almost feral girls is fascinating.

This was a very powerful book, leaving one with lots to think about.