'Witty, tenderhearted, fervent’ New York Times ‘Difficult to define, impossible not to admire’ Daily Telegraph ‘An old-fashioned, big-hearted novel... somewhere between Trollope and Twain’ Boston Globe 'Superb in scope and originality, a novel as good as one could hope to find from any author’ Joseph Heller __________ '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