Four teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will
live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s
The Cherry Orchard.Spectacular . . . intensely evocative and gorgeously written . . . will fill
readers’ eyes with tears and wonder.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE
YEAR: New York Post Coming of age in the USSR in the 1980s best friends Anya and Milka try to
envision a free and joyful future for themselves. They spend their summers at Anya’s dacha just
outside of Moscow lazing in the apple orchard listening to Queen songs and fantasizing about
trips abroad and the lives of American teenagers. Meanwhile Anya’s parents talk about World
War II the Blockade and the hardships they have endured. By the time Anya and Milka are
fifteen the Soviet Empire is on the verge of collapse. They pair up with classmates Trifonov
and Lopatin and the four friends share secrets and desires argue about history and politics
and discuss forbidden books. But the world is changing and the fleeting time they have
together is cut short by a sudden tragedy. Years later Anya returns to Russia from America
where she has chosen a different kind of life far from her family and childhood friends. When
she meets Lopatin again he is a smug businessman who wants to buy her parents’ dacha and cut
down the apple orchard. Haunted by the ghosts of her youth Anya comes to the stark realization
that memory does not fade or disappear rather it moves us across time connecting our past to
our future joys to sorrows. Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard Kristina
Gorcheva-Newberry’s The Orchard powerfully captures the lives of four Soviet teenagers who are
about to lose their country and one another and who struggle to survive to save their
friendship to recover all that has been lost.
