Cidermaster Of Rio Oscuro

Description

In Cidermaster of Rio Oscuro, an orchard in northern New Mexico is the setting for fourteen seasons of growth and harvest and for Harvey Frauenglass, the current steward of this orchard, to meditate on the natural cycles of life and death. Frauenglass comes to realize, this shamble of property offers a kind of salvation. The decrepit farmhouse and its outbuildings, the trees and their infirmities, and the querulous centuries-old acequia that funnels water from the Rio Oscuro to the farm embody histories of care and hope, of grief and loss. Stories of devotion and love may be found her, too: the story of a lonely Catholic priest, Father Freidrich Meyers, the previous cidermaster of the farm; the story of neighbors who share their collective wisdom and work selflessly along with Frauenglass and his wife; the story of Marni, Frauenglass's daughter, battling breast cancer even as she carries in her stricken body her unborn son Trevor. Cidermaster of Rio Oscuro offers a vision of a simpler life where a venerable orchard becomes a place to put down roots and find hope and expectation in the harvest. This is radiant first book about the ways in which a man is gentled by a growing connection to the earth, to her fruits, and to the order of the seasons.