After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award-winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud-s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther-a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism. Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won-t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won-t find any family who-ll adopt her. When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren-t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther-s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, E
