This book is historical fiction, mostly YA coming-of-age novel. According to the author’s note, it is semi-autobiographical involving episodes from her own childhood and the adult part mirrors her own life. The first 2/3s follow two close friends who spend most of their time talking about boys and then the two boys they add to their friend group. It deals with the changes in the USSR from 1984/85 but mostly by telling instead of showing. The book takes place in very few locations so most of this is overhearing or participating discussion with adults versus experiencing. This is a little slow and can get old. A sex scene between young teens will always feel wrong to me and in general the crude language seemed overdone but may have been realistic to the author’s experience. The sexual abuse one of the characters experienced was very heavily hinted at come 10% (why I am not considering a spoiler). This is a tragic book and there is really no hope for most characters. The last third takes place 20 years later when the MC is an adult and goes to the US and then returns home. It feels more of a summary and less connected to the rest of the book. Also, the adult still felt like a teen. I almost gave it 2 stars but went with 3 since it was semi-autobiographical, and the author’s note gave it context.

DNF @5%

The Orchard is for fans of character-driven stories and readers who can tolerate a dark and sad atmosphere. If you are someone who is comfortable reading really challenging material, you may enjoy this experience.

The first chapter of The Orchard made me really uncomfortable. There was just too much description of prepubescent girls like, playing with their ideas of sex? Having their dolls act out sex acts, and being overly descriptive of their bodies. I think the intention was to show how free and unashamed they were of their bodies and thoughts as children, but I just don’t really want to think about how children think about sex? It feels like none of my business?

In addition, the writing style wasn’t for me. It felt like a long list of action, peppered with descriptions that again, often felt gross to me. It kind of felt like listening to your older relative reminisce about old times in a stream of consciousness instead of reading a story where you can disappear inside and see what the characters see and feel what the characters feel.

If you’re looking for a realistic story of characters living in the USSR in the 1980s, I would recommend you give it a try!

DNF 2star - Some readers will love this, many will appreciate it, but it was not for me.

The novel’s strength lies in its rich, atmospheric prose, which vividly captures the setting and the emotional depth of its characters. Gorcheva-Newberry's writing is both lyrical and introspective, drawing readers into the character's internal and external struggles. The depiction of the post-Soviet environment is particularly notable for its authenticity and nuance, offering insight into the lingering effects of a tumultuous period on individual lives.

A coming age novel set in 1980s in the USSR was a great read.

There was a lot of sad moments in this read as it dealt with serious political events that affected many people. This is a beautifully written book that will embrace you from the first page and take you on a journey of love and longing. These kids are like teenagers everywhere but the swirl of change around them makes them like teens from nowhere else.

An exquisitely written novel about loss: the loss of a family member, a best friend, a nation, a home. It does the impossible by capturing the mixed longing and regret that come from looking back at one's life. Just a beautiful, beautiful book – a heartbreaker.

Sometimes it can feel difficult to find such contemporary human stories set in late Soviet times, especially those available in English, and this book does a great job of filling that gap.

The Orchard is the story of four teenagers in the USSR. The narration and dialogue take us way beyond the sometimes wooden portrayal of people living under Soviet rule and instead show us a portrait of four friends who speak spiritedly about books and culture, enjoy American music, and dream of opportunity and freedom as they come of age with difficult family and national histories. Kristina Gorbachev-Newberry does a wonderful job acquainting readers with this particular "perestroika generation." Of course, it's not strictly a historical-cultural document -- the plot is engaging and really does invest the reader in Anya's family's separation and the pain of a home far away from you changing.

"The Orchard" is a poignant and emotionally charged novel that tells the story of a group of inseparable friends during the fall of the Soviet Union. The book is narrated by Anya, who recalls her childhood and teenage years with her best friends, Milka and the two boys, Lopatin and Trifonov. Set against the backdrop of the political and social turmoil in Russia during the 1980s, the story explores themes of friendship, sexual exploration, and coming of age against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.

One of the standout elements of "The Orchard" is its vivid and authentic portrayal of life in Russia during this time period. The book offers a unique and nuanced perspective on the complexities and challenges of growing up in the Soviet Union, and the ways in which the fall of the regime impacted the lives of ordinary people. The characters are also well-developed, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations.

The first part of the book follows Anya and her friends as they navigate their teenage years and the many regimes that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. The second part of the book picks up almost twenty years later, as Anya returns to Russia from the United States, where she has married an American and pursued a career as a comparative literature professor. As Anya confronts the ghosts of her past and works to build a future for herself and her family, the conflict with Lopatin over the sale of her family's orchard takes center stage.

This novel takes a great deal of inspiration from "The Cherry Orchard" by playwright Anton Chekhov, as shown by the protagonist being named Anya and the antagonist being named Lopatin, rather than Lopakhin. While I enjoyed the novel, I couldn't help but feel that I would have had a deeper understanding had I seen or read the play script of "The Cherry Orchard" beforehand.

Overall, "The Orchard" is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that offers a unique and authentic portrayal of life in the Soviet Union during the 1980s. With its emotional depth, engaging characters, and compelling storyline, it is a must-read for anyone interested in the historical and cultural context of the fall of the Soviet Union. Just be aware that the book may contain triggering themes and content, including sexual abuse and violence, which could be disturbing for some readers. If you have experienced trauma or have triggers that may be activated by this type of content, it may be best to approach this book with caution or seek support while reading.

Overall, I give this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars!

3 shadowed stars
“They wrestle, clamor on the walls and the ceiling – those beautiful slanted patches of light and darkness.”

I wrestled with The Orchard. It is poetic and descriptive, ”Her skin the color of March snow.” “Dragonflies darted by. The willows shivered, their branches like old spindly fingers dabbling in the water. Here and there, the banks were penciled with reeds, a mob of furry cattails.” Gorcheva-Newberry writes the tragic and hopeful at the same time, but hope receded at the end of the first section. Other personal descriptors for this novel: honest, emotional, raw, sometimes violent and brutal.

I appreciated the insights into Soviet life in the 80s. ”But we didn’t want to think that far ahead, because that was how most Russians existed – tomorrow could be a life away; today, on the other hand, was all one owned.” “Russian people are fatalists; we believe that our future is preordained, irreversible. But then, we also believe in miracles, one grand sweep of imagination. Perhaps it’s what allows us to survive and to endure.”

Characters are strong. I liked Anya’s enduring grandmother’s sad, but resolute character. “She told stories that made us turn silent and that stayed in the room long after she’d gone to bed. My father could never challenge her truth, the courage and sadness tucked into the folds of her old face.” Exquisite writing but its intensity gets so heavy.

Checkov’s play, The Cherry Orchard is mentioned regularly. I would have appreciated a footnote for myself and the many readers who don’t know the work. I’m sure there are things we missed.

“Books were our gateway to eternity, our bridges from past to future, from pain to joy.” The Orchard is such a book, spanning past to future, but IMHO both the acute and dull pains superseded the hope, the glimpses of beauty. A tough read.

Trigger warnings: violence, rape, vulgar language used regularly

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry is a coming-of-age tale set in '80s USSR and the US. With this being the same period of my childhood, this is an interesting era for me to read about, as well as being a fav of Chekhov, of which this tale is loosely based. This is not a happy tale but a poignant one and beautifully written.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This was a complex coming of age story of 2 young girls during a time where their country was breaking apart. Anya and Milka grew up in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and wanted to experience everything a young person desires. They were extremely close and trusted each other immensely. They were willing to take risks and push the limits of their being. When tragedy strikes, life is upended.

This was a deeply moving story that pulled me into a world in which I was unfamiliar. I was captivated by the author’s note and hadn’t realized that this book was inspired by the author’s childhood in Moscow. As the reader, I could feel the emotions of these characters and appreciate the author’s determination to write this book.

Very poignant and compelling I found myself caring about each character and finding the story impossible to abandon. A wonderful debut novel, I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Soon after becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev famously rebranded two Russian words: glasnost and perestroika, meaning openness and restructuring, respectively. With these words he ushered in a new era for the USSR, one in which citizens had more freedoms and economic options. It was a period of change unlike anything the nation had yet witnessed, and, for Soviet youth, it meant hope for the future. This was “Generation Perestroika,” as author Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry calls it in her debut novel The Orchard, a coming-of-age tale loosely inspired by Anton Chekhov’s final play, The Cherry Orchard.

The Orchard’s protagonist, Anya Raneva, is a part of this generation, though she doesn’t know it yet when the book opens. At first, she’s blissfully unaware of the changes to come, spending tranquil summer days with her best friend Milka at the family dacha, or country house, just outside Moscow, whose modest apple orchard plays a major role later on. Anya and Milka, friends since first grade, are like sisters when we meet them at age fourteen. They share everything—including their burgeoning sexual feelings, which prompt them to let two male classmates into their core friend group to form an uncomplicated party of four. By the end of the book’s first part, however, it becomes clear that there is much the prickly Milka is keeping from her best friend, which will result in a tragedy that scatters their once close-knit clique.

When the book’s second part opens, it’s the mid-2000s and Anya is living in Virginia with her American husband. She needs to return home for the first time in more than nineteen years to help her parents with a problem: a developer wants to buy the now intensely valuable land on which the family dacha sits. The image of their beloved apple orchard being cleared is too much to bear, not to mention the fact that the middleman pressuring them to sell is none other than a member of Anya’s childhood friend group. Anya’s return to her home country to attempt to save the dacha is painful, but it also gives her the chance to answer lingering questions and get some closure.

Gorcheva-Newberry highlights the interconnected nature of beginnings and endings in The Orchard—a not-at-all surprising thematic choice given the inspiration behind the novel. Chekhov’s 1903 play The Cherry Orchard shows an upper-class woman, completely in denial about her dire financial straits, slowly losing her cherry orchard to a family friend, a former serf turned businessman. Chekhov—whose cherry orchard stands for the dying off of the old order, the cluelessness of the Russian aristocracy and their inability to cope with the changing times—aimed for satire but achieved pathos, much as Gorcheva-Newberry does.

The play makes several appearances in The Orchard. The teenagers begrudgingly read and discuss it in class and ironically find themselves unable to relate to the characters, although, with the collapse of the Soviet Union on the horizon, they’ll soon know what it’s like to straddle the gap between old ways and new and see how changes that benefit society can be frightfully unkind to individuals. This becomes apparent after Anya’s return to Russia in part two, when she listens to her mother—fiercely critical of the Soviet system during her entire upbringing—lament the loss of the old order. Anya is shocked to hear this, but the threat of losing their precious orchard and the crushing cost of living in the so-called “New Russia” is enough to make her mother nostalgic.

Not even those who support the new system are guaranteed a happy ending. We don’t see how life eventually turned out for the former serf who seized his opportunity to acquire the titular cherry orchard in Chekhov’s play, but it’s possible the wars and revolutions to come crushed his dreams just as the rapid disappearance of democracy in the 1990s let down the young Soviets who wanted something better for their homeland. “Like kids who loved and pitied their ill, disabled parents,” writes Gorcheva-Newberry, “so did we love and pity our country; we worried for it, we revered it, and we wished desperately for it to get well.”

The breakup of the friend group in The Orchard is a powerful symbol of the betrayal of the Perestroika Generation, and the loss of Anya’s family dacha underscores the uncannily cyclical nature of Russian history: one system yields to another that ends up looking mighty similar to the one that came before, and with each upheaval comes a steep price that citizens are forced to pay. Gorcheva-Newberry beautifully renders these historical trends using Chekhov as a blueprint in this moving, tragic, and distinctly Russian tale.

*ARC received by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review* At the heart of this book is friendship, told through the lens of beautiful writing that is rich in detail. It is due to the writing that is so beautifully done readers are put in the place of these characters. One of the most important parts of this book is subject matter that is perfect given what the world is facing right now. Access to proper healthcare is crucial. With that being said the writing style while beautifully done at times caused the plot to drag. Despite interesting characters and relationships that I cared about I found myself bored at times which eventually lead to some disinterest. However, I recommend the novel for those who enjoy slower paced, and detailed stories.

On it's head, I think this was probably a very good novel - but I had difficulty making my way through it.

DNF'd at 25%.

# The Orchard by # Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry is a powerful debut novel. Based loosely on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Her story is based on four teenagers in the last days of the Soviet Union.
“Anya comes to the stark realization that memory does not fade or disappear, rather, it moves us across time, connecting our past to our future, joys to sorrows.”
Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley and #Random House-Ballantine

The Orchard is a memorable coming of age story about four teens in the 1980’s in the Soviet Union. Anya and Milka are best friends, and Lopatin and Triffoli are the boys that join their group as love interests and confidants. Together they navigate growing up until tragedy strikes. Many years later, after leaving to pursue an education in America, Anya returns and reunites with Lopatin, realizing that even as some things change, many remain the same.

I found this book entertaining and interesting, but extremely sad. Feelings of compassion, fear and grief flowed from me as I read Anya’s story. This is not the novel to read if you are looking for a happily ever after, but it will make you feel.

"The Orchard", by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, was an honest, dysfunctional, sad, yet necessary tale of a girl's childhood in Russia in the 1980's. Very disturbing parts, but felt like an important read, shedding light on this reality. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the reader copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a heartbreakingly beautiful coming of age story. Growing up in the US, I recognize the privilege that I have had to never have had to worry about war and famine. There is so much rich history and culture written into this novel they will sit with me long after I’ve finished reading it. This is a very timely story that I truly hope others find and appreciate as much as I have, because it’s so relevant to what is happening today.
The characters are very well developed and consistent. The story line really pulled me in and had me fully invested in all of the main characters and their well being,

In the author's note, she mentions that while growing up she was drawn to books about loss and would be full of emotion after reading them. She accomplished that with this novel, which is a moving story of four friends who grew up during perestroika. The writing and storyline drew me in even though there were some tough parts. Some of the dialogue was on point based on the atrocities that are happening today.

I’ve always loved Chekhov’s play, “The Cherry Orchard”, because Chekhov not only had a lovely way with words, but because he could convey so much about the mutability of humans in a concise and clever way. The play is a classic for a good reason, and so when I saw there was going to be a novel not only about three times as long as the play but also updating the setting to Soviet Russia, I simply couldn’t resist. I wanted to know mainly if the author could capture the same story and the same lovely manner of storytelling as Chekhov without resorting to cheap tricks or melodrama. Would it be literary fiction or literary farce? My verdict? Literary fiction. An outstanding take on the classic play with the same feeling of ennui and mutability I cherished so much from Chekhov.

I have to let you know I annotated my copy very heavily, simply because so much of this book is not only beautifully written, but some of the narrative reveals and points are genuinely insightful and often scratchy with dry wit. Humor comes at unexpected times from unexpected sources, and yet even the humor that’s present is either morbid or almost bellicose in tenor.

This book is almost straight forward literary fiction, with a hefty chunk of the book relying on coming-of-age during the early 1980s. So you understand when I tell you this is not a quick read. The book is character-driven, with a large amount of characters all well worth taking the time to try and understand. The introspective passages about life in Soviet Russia, the notion of what makes a place home even if that place is absolutely terrible, how men and women do and don’t interact in a culture heavy with patriarchy, why so many Russians were absolutely okay with the autocratic version of Communism that reigned behind the Iron Curtain, and what it takes to be a survivor in a country that only cares if you live or die if you get in their way are all absolutely brilliant and the sentence-structure is lovely.

I can’t recommend this book enough. In a sea of novels updating old stories, it stands out as one of the best I’ve read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.