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The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules

Author(s): John Irving

Location(s): Maine

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 20th Century

Location

Content

‘The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud’s so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer’s intention to make St Cloud’s his home.’

Homer Wells’ odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud’s orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage’s founder – a man of rare compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend…

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

it was a while until I came to this, but it is a classic, with Dr Wilbur Larch and the young fellow Homer Wells. History and geography are beautifully brought together in this excellent...

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