SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) ' The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackay's most perfect book' PHILIP HENSHER, GUARDIAN 'A bitter-sweet, gentle novel, not given to grandstanding or preaching' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Shena Mackay has brought off something quite rare' ANITA BROOKNER, SPECTATOR 'What made the orchard miraculous was an abandoned railway carriage, set down as if by magic, its wheels gone, anchored by long grass and nettles. Ruby and I stared at it and each other . dark-windowed, out of place in a thicket of thorns, it was the perfect hide-out, house, the camp of our dreams' When April's parents move from London to rural Kent, she makes her first best friend: flame-haired, fearless Ruby. Their friendship is a refuge of secret hide-outs, dares and laughter - but beneath this surface of this childhood idyll lurks a darker reality. While Ruby hides the bruises from her brutal home life, April can't escape the attention of the immaculate Mr Greenridge, with his charming dachshund and his eyes like blue glass. Achingly nostalgic, funny and poignant, The Orchard on Fire is a bittersweet portrait of a 50s childhood, friendship and lost innocence.