25 January 2021
The Orchard
A commanding debut and a poignant coming-of-age story about a devout Jewish high school student whose plunge into the secularized world threatens everything he knows of himself
Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.
Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death.
Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future—one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.
Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires.
| Title | : | The Orchard |
| ISBN | : | 9780062974747 |
| Format Type | : |
Readers Also Enjoyed The Orchard
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Looking back as an adult on his teenage years Aryeh (Ari) Eden, sets the stage for the novel : “ As a teenager, I felt this neatly encapsulated suffocation of my childhood, the trackless wasteland o...
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I really loved this book. A reader doesn’t need to be Jewish to enjoy the intimate nuanced- the conscience-ridden and carefully wrought, candor, humor, or the tragic underlying vulnerability and sub...
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Well! This was promising, breathtaking, gripping and emotional! Such a riveting, moving, powerful, addictive coming of age story! I don’t want to compare this book with the other novels! Especially ...
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a jewish The Secret History? this could redeem 2020 for me....
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As this coming-of-age story begins, Aryeh Eden is a 17 year-old living in Williamsburg, an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, with his parents, attending a rundown school and spending his days and nig...
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It has finally happened. After more than 20 years of books being compared to THE SECRET HISTORY that are, in actuality, not like THE SECRET HISTORY at all, we finally have a winner. In fact, not only ...
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"The Orchard" had an amazing beginning, but fell flat around the middle mark. I really liked Ari. He was a wonderful, sensitive, anxious, and well-rounded character. I could really feel his anguish an...
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QUICK TAKE: simply put, The Orchard is…STUNNING. This coming-of-age story is centered around an Orthodox Jewish teen who experiences a spiritual crisis when he and his family relocate to a wealthy e...
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This had so much promise, but the constant digressions into discussions of Gemara and philosophy stop the action and dragged events out for far too long. It also may be difficult to follow some of the...
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I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, Ecco, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.“…some find God while trying to lose Him…others lose God while trying to find Him....