Apple Island

Apple Island is the primary setting for the novel. The island is located off the coast of Maine,"hardly three hundred feet across a channel from the mainland" (11, Harding's italics). The island is roughly 42 acres, "twelve hundred feet across, east to west, and fifteen hundred feet long, north to south" (11, Harding's italics). When Benjamin and Patience Honey find the island in 1793, the "abandoned Penobscot shell berm" is entirely uninhabited (11, Harding's italics). The couple therefore makes the island their home. Benjamin plants apple seeds that he has carried with him, and they soon grow into healthy orchards. Meanwhile, the couple starts their family. Over the years, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren come to populate the island.

By 1911, the island is still inhabited by residents who are almost all connected to Benjamin and Patience Honey. The Honey, Lark, McDermott, and Proverb families live here peacefully together. However, as soon...