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The Walled Orchard by Tom Holt

Book Cover - Tom Holt: The Walled Orchard

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Colin Hadley

You can read more about this book at Amazon's websites (where you also can order the book):
Normal paper editions
Amazon UK (Paperback) The Walled Orchard
Amazon USA (Paperback) The Walled Orchard
Amazon Canada (Paperback) The Walled Orchard
Amazon Deutschland (Paperback) The Walled Orchard Kindle (eBook) editions
Amazon UK (Kindle edition) The Walled Orchard
Amazon USA (Kindle edition) The Walled Orchard
Amazon Canada (Kindle edition) The Walled Orchard
Amazon Deutschland (Kindle edition) The Walled Orchard

See below for information about the German translation
Category: historical fiction
First published: 1990
Publisher: St Martins Pr, published May 1991
ISBN: 0312059906, Hardcover
Size: 21.1 x 14.2 x 3 cm
Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks, New Edition, published 4 Dec 1997
ISBN: 0751521388, Paperback, 591 pages
Size: 19.4 x 12.8 x 4 cm
Publisher: Hachette Digital, published 1 Oct 2009
ISBN: B003151JQ0, Kindle edition, 612 pages

Book synopsis (The back of the book says)

Athens is in the middle of her golden age: Pericles is building the Parthenon; Sophocles, Euripides and Socrates are writing words which will live forever; and Eupolis is herding goats on Parnes. Unfortunately, Athens is also embarking on the Peloponnesian War, which she will eventually lose.

This new edition of Walled Orchard contains Goatsong as well, (they were intended to be one book from the beginning).

A sequel to Goatsong and The Walled Orchard was published on the 5th of August 1999.
The title of that book is Alexander At The World's End.

Reviews of this book

After reading this book Bill Hawkins wrote this

I'd just finished the combined books (Goatsong and Orchard), and went to Google to see what I could learn about Holt. Your site seemed quite complete, and offered an offline quote generator as well. So I looked at the page for Orchard and found two links to reviews. The first was by someone who did not understand the book, and should have kept quiet so as not to appear so unobservant of anything not closely connected to himself. The other link, to the "Independent", did not work.
This book contains the best description of Democracy that I have ever read in 63 years of taking up space on this planet. But it had to be put in perspective, which the preceding 500 pages do very well. I did not get the Greek references either, but that did not detract from the story. And so I have written this comment, to rebalance things a bit.

Other people's reviews of this book

Kirkus reviews

If you have read this book and have written down your thoughts, please mail me the location of your review and I will link it from here.

What critics have said

`Read THE WALLED ORCHARD so you can tell your descendants, "I was there when the historical novel started holding its head up with the rest of literature"'
-- THE WASHINGTON POST
`Witty, ironic... and achieved a deeply felt authenticity.'
-- THE NEW YORK TIMES
`This book is a hilarious yet well-researached historical novel.'
-- HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW
`Out of his own playful erudition, Tom Holt creates an unforgettable narrator, a wise and caustic commentator on the golden age of Athens'
-- WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY

In German

This novel has been translated into German and is called:"Der Garten hinter der Mauer"

Amazon Deutschland (Paperback) Der Garten hinter der Mauer
ISBN: 3453078004
Paperback,Heyne,1994
429 pages, Size: 17,8 x 11,6 x 2,8 cm

See translated books for other novels translated into German