Some losses we never get
over. And when a parent loses a child, grief becomes all the more profound. In The
Lemon Orchard, prolific author Luanne
Rice explores this experience with creative compassion telling the story of
Julia Hughes, a mother whose 16 year-old daughter, Jenny, dies in a car crash
that also claims the life of Jenny's father and Julia's husband, a man whom she
was in the process of divorcing.
Five years after the
deaths, Julia, a professor of cultural anthropology at Yale University, is
still unable to shake the loss. But when a beloved aunt and uncle ask her to
house-sit for their Malibu property and lemon orchard, Julia
packs up with her beloved dog and heads west.
The natural, sensory beauty of the Santa
Monica Mountains serves to intensify Julia's memories of Jenny and stir her
presence. And when Roberto, the manager of the lemon orchard takes an interest in Julia--and vice-versa--the
two, from different cultures, connect and bond through their shared pain of
losing daughters. In Roberto's case, his daughter was lost and never found
during their illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. Julia and
Roberto begin to fall in love, which inspires a renewed sense of purpose in
Julia as she becomes determined to find answers about Roberto's daughter.
Alternating points of
view lend intimacy to the romantic elements and suspense of the narrative. Rice has
written a tender portrait of grief and loss that ultimately becomes a gateway
to hope and healing, love and reinvention.
Pamela Dorman Books, $27.95, Hardcover, 9780670025275 , 304
pp
Publication Date: July 2,
2013
Note: This review is a
reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission
of Shelf
Awareness. To read this review on Shelf
Awareness: Reader's Edition (7/12/13), click HERE