The Orchard: A Memoir (Platinum Nonfiction)

Part Mary Karr and part Rachel Carson, The Orchard is the story of a street-smart city girl who must adapt to a new life on an apple farm after she falls in love with Adrian Curtis, the golden boy of a prominent family whose lives and orchards seem to be cursed.

Married young - and after a courtship of only three months - Theresa finds life with Adrian on the farm far more difficult and dangerous than she expected. Rejected by her husband's family as an outsider, she slowly learns for herself about the isolated world of farming, pesticides, environmental destruction, and death, even as she falls more deeply in love with her husband and the land that has been in his family for generations.

Theresa becomes a reluctant player in the never-ending attempt to keep the codling moth from destroying the orchard, though she and Adrian eventually come to know that their efforts will not only fail but will ultimately take an irreparable toll.