The Cider House Rules: John Irving

`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 closest friend...