The Family Orchard: A Novel (Vintage International)

by Nomi Eve

  The following books greatly aided me in my work: A View from Jerusalem 1849–1858: The Consular Diary of James and Elizabeth Anne Finn, edited by Arnold Blumberg; Israel Guide, by Zev Vilnay; The NILI Spies, by Anita Engle; A History of Israel, by Howard M. Sachar; and The Timetables of Jewish History, by Judah Gribetz, Edward L. Greenstein, and Regina S. Stein. I am also grateful to the many kind gentlemen who e-mailed me from around the world (Scotland, England, Israel, Japan!) in order to help me identify my grandfather’s motorcycle. I applaud the “Rudge Enthusiasts.”

  I am grateful to the memory of my late great-aunt, Sarah Kaplan, and to the memory of my late grandfather, Peretz Buch. He was called Mar HaPardess, Mr. Orchard. Surely all the trees on my pages were also tended by his deft hands.

  My book is for, about, and written because of family. Lastly, I thank all of my family near and far, named and unnamed. I will be forever picking up branches and using them to write beloved names on the orchard floor.

  ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

  4 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  13 Palestine Illustrated, Rev. Samuel Manning

  21 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  32 Winston’s Encyclopedia, vol. 2

  38 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  55 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  82 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  87 Palestine Illustrated, Rev. Samuel Manning

  94 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  105 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  109 Winston’s Encyclopedia, vol. 6

  123 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  134 Author’s Collection

  135 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  148 Bible Brilliants or Mother’s Home Bible Stories

  150 Don’t Trudge It, Rudge It, Bryan Reynolds

  151 Bible Brilliants or Mother’s Home Bible Stories

  168 The Holy Bible, L. Charmoux and E. Fitzmaurice

  174 A Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees, William Forsyth

  204 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  219 Palestine Illustrated, Rev. Samuel Manning

  238 W. Floyd

  242 The Grafter’s Handbook, R. J. Garner

  257 Illustrated Home Book of the World’s Great Nations

  262 The Grafter’s Handbook, R. J. Garner

  270 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  271 Bible Brilliants or Mother’s Home Bible Stories

  272 The Land and the Book, W. M. Thomson

  301 A Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees, William Forsyth

  303 Walks about the City and Environs of Jerusalem, W. H. Bartlett

  Nomi Eve

  The Family Orchard

  Nomi Eve lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. She has an MFA in fiction writing from Brown University and has worked as a freelance book reviewer for The Village Voice and New York Newsday. Her stories have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, Voice Literary Supplement, and The International Quarterly. The Family Orchard is her first novel.

  FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2001

  Copyright © 2000 by Nomi Eve

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright

  Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2000.

  Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage International and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Some of the chapters in this novel were originally published as follows:

  “Esther and Yochanan” in Glimmer Train Stories (June 1996);

  “The Water Dance” as “Al Jud” in The International Quarterly

  (Winter 1997); “The Double Tree” in The Village Voice Literary

  Supplement (VLS) (March 1994); “To Conjure the Twin”

  in Glimmer Train Stories (August 1997).

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:

  Eve, Nomi, 1968–

  The family orchard / Nomi Eve

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-375-71399-9

  1. Jewish families—Fiction. 2. Jews—Israel—Fiction.

  3. Israel—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3555.V32 F36 2000

  813'.6—dc21 00-040566

  Author photograph © Marion Ettlinger

  Family tree designed by Karen Schloss

  www.vintagebooks.com

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