The Orchard

Hi everyone, it’s good to have you with me for the April episode! Hopefully you guys are seeing signs of spring wherever you are listening in from. Today, I’m gonna to let you know what I thought of The Orchard, by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry. It’s not a very light read and it might seem counter-intuitive as a novel to welcome spring, but I see themes of renewal and fresh starts among the strong nostalgic tone. And ultimately, I think this might be a good way to try something new instead of repeating cringey romance novels. Let’s take a break from TikTok and really aim for something of substance.

The Orchard was published 3 years ago by Russian-American author Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry and its inspiration comes from facts about the author’s life as well as Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard. Actually, the main plot of The Orchard can be summarized in a similar sentence as that of The Cherry Orchard: a Russian woman living in America returns back to her homeland to deal with the selling of her parents estate.

We were not just looking into their story, but rather living it alongside them as they grew up.

Now, at this point, I really thought the novel was going to be focused on the present time and that we would get flashbacks to fill us in on what happened between Anya and her childhood friends. But it really wasn’t. Most of the novel is actually linear and focused on the 4 friends growing up during the mid 1980s in Russia. Only the last part of the novel is focused on Anya coming back to Russia, after having lived in America, to defend her family and prevent one of her friend turned real estate developer to buy her parents’ country house. It was a pleasant surprise for me and I really liked the linear structure because it made it easier to follow and we felt like we were part of the story with the characters. We were not just looking into their story, but rather living it alongside them as they grew up. It’s much nicer this way because the author can take her time in developing the story and as the reader, we get to see the details and nuances in the relationship between characters. Much much better than a flashback because they need context to provide context and you can end up running out of time. It can ultimately lose its effectiveness. I like that the plot, the characters, and the setting felt very real, that they had complex layers and depth to them. The relationship between the 4 friends is an interesting dynamic in that Anya is similar to one of the guys: Trifonov and Milka is the same with Lopatin. The friendships also feel like they stem from proximity and going through the same experiences together. Their bond is more about the hardships of growing up in their environment and I liked reading about the circumstances leading to their friendship. It’s refreshing to read about the adventures they all had and how different is it from our era of social media. It was also really nice to have nods to the play by which the novel was inspired: The Cherry Orchard and how they serve as a homage to it. It’s nice to see that the author is not hiding the inspiration, but rather displaying it and highlighting its role. This novel is also very rich in symbolism and it’s done in such a way that it feels natural and integrated into real life. Kinda like when people look for signs and connexions.

There’s not much I didn’t like about the novel. What really struck me was how raw and mature the content got at times, but it was to be expected given the transformational changes Russia was experiencing as well as the teenagers at the heart of the story. I know it can be hard to take in some of the facts and that might deter some readers. If you also prefer very original works and hate re-adaptions, this might not be for you.

Thank you for joining me in talking about The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry. If you like Russian literature and history, you will definitely enjoy this novel. It’s a 4 out of 5 stars for me and if you have the chance to read it, I hope you’ll also rate it highly. If you love historical fiction, the fun is not over yet because next month, I’ll be reviewing All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton.

Until then, enjoy the incoming spring and keep exploring those pages!