BLUE ORCHARD Author Jackson Taylor Discusses His New Novel, THE GREEN PEAR

Join us on at 5 PM on Sunday, October 18, 2026, during our Fall 2026 Authors’ Week, to hear from one of our favorite authors, JACKSON TAYLOR, about the second novel in his Harrisburg trilogy: THE GREEN PEAR. Many will have read his first novel in this series, THE BLUE ORCHARD, and heard him speak at past events at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore.This special program is FREE and open to the public - or Order a SIGNED Paperback or Hardcover for VIP Reserved Seating. Jackson will be joined in conversation by an accomplished local journalist, JAMAR THRASHER.About the BookFrom the mid-century glamour of New York to a quiet village on the Italian Riviera, this beautifully written literary novel follows a man who searches for the truth of his own identity in a world of beautiful, broken things.In the late 1950s, Peggy Drexler-Leighton is a well-known face in high fashion. But as the decade turns, she finds herself sidelined by an industry that has little room for maturing women. Following a sudden tragedy, she and her young son, Walker, retreat to their Pennsylvania roots—only to find that 'home' is a place of shifting expectations and difficult truths.Decades later, we follow Walker to Italy, living as an ex-pat on the Riviera, where he finally seeks to define himself to himself, navigating a life of unusual pairings and hard-won independence. His quiet existence is disrupted by the arrival of his cousin, Lydia, whose presence brings more than just a conflicted memory of home.As Walker witnesses the increasing strain on Lydia’s marriage—dragged into the personal and professional drama of their lives and those around them—the tension reaches a fever pitch. Private resentments become public tragedies. When the local peace is shattered by a series of shocking media events, the ensuing news coverage turns an intimate family struggle into a spectacle that predicts the onset of global witness that the world-wide internet will soon deliver. Walker is forced into a life-altering reckoning, finally confronting the cost of acceptance and the reality of a planetary view that make it almost impossible to look away.About the AuthorJackson Taylor is a celebrated novelist and educator. His debut, The Blue Orchard, earned widespread praise for its painstaking research and powerful narrative. Beyond the page, Jackson has spent his work-life fostering a new generation of writers—directing the PEN Prison Writing Program and helping to launch & develop MFA programs at The New School and The Writer’s Foundry.About the InterviewerJamar Thrasher is a Pennsylvania-based writer of fiction and non-fiction. He has published works in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PennLive and the Pennsylvania Capital Star, among other outlets.