The Excellent Lombards

It's about the time of year when I start thinking of all the good things that come with autumn. One of my favorite fall things is a sweet, crunchy apple. The Excellent Lombards, Jane Hamilton's newest novel, takes us to an apple orchard in Wisconsin run by, you guessed it, the Lombard family. It's an extended family that owns the orchard, and our particular view of this pastoral setting comes from Mary Frances "Frankie" Lombard, whose father and uncle are sharing the responsibility of running the orchard. Like any farm, it requires a lot of  hard work. And Frankie dives right into it. She loves her life on the orchard to such a great extent that she cannot imagine leaving it. She dreams that she and her brother William will in fact never leave; they will stay there together and run it forever. This does not take into account her uncle, her cousin, or the hotshot farmhand her uncle hires. Suddenly Frankie's future fears threatened. This is a beautifully written book of a girl growing up and figuring things out. Reading it, you may remember what it felt like to gradually see the nuances of life that you missed as a child. Some of those realizations are bittersweet. But that apple you'll want to munch while reading, well that one will be perfect.

posted by Kelly Currie