Shakespeare in the Orchard

A coming-of-age story inspired by true events in Australia during World War I that explores the things that separate us and those that bring us together, from an award-winning author.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 3

Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him everything he knew, after their father died. But now Matt has joined the war effort, and it's up to Jack to hold down the home front and help his mother run the family orchard.

When a group of 'enemy aliens' are sent to Langwarrin to be held prisoner at the military base, tensions in the town run high. For Jack and his best friend, Walter, the war feels closer than ever.

Like the rest of the town, Jack and Walter want nothing to do with the German prisoners. But as the war progresses, the inmates at the camp are put to work doing manual labour on the farms around Langwarrin, including Jack's family orchard, and Jack begins to see that the prisoners are people, too.

What could Jack possibly have in common with the people responsible for keeping his beloved brother at war? And can Shakespeare bring them all together?