At the Edge of the Orchard

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I kept reading and thinking it couldn't possibly get worse between these two, and then something more would pop up as James and Sadie told their story in alternating POVs. What fascinates me most about Tracy Chevalier and her writing is the fact that in every one of her books I've been introduced to a subject, or a place that I knew nothing about before. Their relationship is contentious and toxic, made harder by the fact that it is nearly impossible to thrive in the swamp with all of that sticky, black mud slowing life down in every way. This tenet of the American dream too is interrogated, when he can go no further west, and must turn back around ("All of this running made no difference").

The story moves forward fifteen years to California, where Robert Goodenough is travelling, trying his hand at different things, making a living, but always remembering his family back at the Black Swamp. The characters are not real and there is no plot except to talk about abuse, sex, and disjointed travels. A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. One particularly vicious fight sends Robert out alone across America, far from his sister, into a life dominated not by apple trees but by the mighty redwoods and sequoias of California.

But the past is never really past, and one day Robert is forced to confront the brutal reason he left behind everything he loved. I did wonder initially if I was going to enjoy it - I thought it was a bit of a rework of its predecessor, and there was a certain amount of quilting detail . Chevalier has created a patchwork of stories in which some pieces stand out more than others; together they form a picture of lives wrested from an unforgiving land, but with a promise of renewal. Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery.

Ohio’s Black Swamp is inhospitable to humans, animals, crops and trees alike, and at the opening of the novel in 1838, the Goodenough family have been battling for nine years to grow the requisite 50 trees that will secure their claim to their land. This is an intense story of a married couple, Sadie and James Goodenough, and their children who settled in the swamps of Ohio in 1838. Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. Fans of her previous books such as The Girl with the Pearl Earring (one of my favourite books) should also enjoy this one.Tracy is the author of 10 novels, including the international bestseller GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. Sadie's hatred of the mud and of James for moving them to the swamp drives her to drink the cider and applejack that is made by the apples that James grows.