THE ORCHARD

Drusilla Modjeska

‘In The Orchard [Modjeska] further develops her distinctive style, weaving fact with fiction, the essay with a flowing fictional narrative, and stories within stories… Modjeska is accessible and entertaining, a good story-teller… Love, adultery, marriage, and domination; sight, the fear of blindness, solitude and self-knowledge; childhood, education and the plight of the intellectual woman; all come under Modjeska’s intelligent scrutiny. Her dexterity at interlacing these assorted skeins without unravelling or entanglement is to be marvelled at’–CANBERRA TIMES

‘. . . a beautifully written narrative, turning on the stories of four women at different ages, and through their self-analysis, the story of many more… The Orchard is written with style and complexity’–MELBOURNE TIMES

‘a book brimful with ideas, informed by a wide-ranging imagination, and certain to inspire those who read it to act upon their dreams… As enriching a book as you’re likely to read this year’–HERALD SUN

1998 Shortlist

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