Barbara Monier

The Rocky Orchard Barbara Monier

SILVER MEDAL WINNER, LITERARY FICTION, 2020 READERS' FAVORITE AWARDS

Why has Mazie returned to her old farm-her family's summer home and a pivotal refuge throughout her life?

While there, Mazie meets and befriends an elderly woman. Mazie is adrift on a sea of memory as she gazes toward the rocky orchard above the farmhouse when movement in the far distance captures her attention. Lula emerges eerily from the morning fog, and a gentle, cautiously loving relationship between youth and old age begins.

As the two women meet each morning to play cards, Mazie considers the shape of her life and the nature of her recollections through stories she tells to her new, older friend. The women travel together through Mazie's stories as if they are tentatively feeling their way through the stony risks hidden by the mist beneath the apple trees. Like a vision that disappears into the distance, it becomes increasingly unclear exactly what events in Mazie's life caused her to return to the farm. And as she explores the illusory intersection of past, present and future, Mazie begins to question whether it was, in fact, a coincidence that Lula came into view one cool morning-and whether anything she believes or feels is real.