A NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST
A Recommended Book From:
The New York Times * Good Morning America * Entertainment Weekly * Electric Literature * The New York Post * Alma * The Millions * Book Riot 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.
“
The Orchard is a wildly ambitious, propulsive novel touching on big, life-altering topics, but David Hopen manages that weight by never losing grip on the story, which blends philosophical questions with a unique thriller and a group of teenagers who command your attention. At the heart of the novel there’s a yearning, a reckoning with those moments when we transform and when we wonder if we can ever go back. I’d be so wary of comparing any novel to Donna Tartt’s
The Secret History, but
The Orchard can handle it because it diverges in such interesting ways.”
