The Orchard: A Novel

A National Jewish Book Awards finalist, The Orchard is a coming-of-age novel about Ari Eden, a devout Jewish high school student whose life has been governed by strict rules in ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn. When his family moves to a Miami suburb, Ari enrolls in an opulent Jewish academy and seizes the chance to reinvent himself. Stunned by his peers' wealth and ambition, Ari is drawn into the school's most exclusive group when Noah, the academy's golden boy, takes him under his wing. The group, including Evan—a brooding genius still grieving his mother's death—begins testing their religion in unconventional ways under the influence of a charismatic rabbi. As Ari and his friends push moral boundaries, they move toward a perilous future in which the traditions of their faith take on mysterious and tragic purposes. The novel explores the conflicting forces that shape identity: the intensity of youthful relationships, the pull of ambition, inherited doctrine, and hidden desires.