Queen Esther

<B>After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Awardwinning film, <I>The Cider House Rules</I>, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esthera Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.</B><BR/><BR/> Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won't find<I> any</I> family who'll adopt her.<BR/><BR/> When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren't Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther's gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the