The Orchard David Hopen
Ari Eden\u2019s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.
Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers\u2019 dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life\u2019s pleasures. When the academy\u2019s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school\u2019s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant\u2014especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother\u2019s death.
Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future\u2014one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.
Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires.