The Cider House Rules

'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...

I will listen to it again and again

after flirting with the first few chapters of this book for the last two years I finally finished it in a month. I will fondly cherish Dr. Larch and St. Cloud's Orphanage and its many memories.

A wonderful, wonderful book

This is John Irving's best novel, and the narrator really brought it to life for me, with his special intonation for every single one of the characters. One of the best audiobooks I ever listened to.