Samuel E Cole

Young Thieves in a Growing Orchard Samuel E Cole

A gay, homeless man, who gives shelter tours, crashes quite unexpectedly into a former lover. A sailboat captain hates, and loves, his daily routine. Burgeoning sexual orientation erupts between two teenage boys on a road trip to Alabama. A father takes extraordinary lengths to see his son. A man travels to Whitefish, Montana in July to give Christmas gifts to three little girls. A mother shows up at her son's nursing home and demands to be seen. A couple, after a dinner party, debates the nuance and missteps of a long, parsimonious marriage. A middle-aged man, due to a breakup, drives to and stops at a town in which he has never been and meets a man who challenges his secrets and lies. Ettrick, whose parents don't believe in God, wants to be baptized in the pond behind the farmhouse. Beatrice A. Muddler finds a career, and builds a life, in a most unlikely place. A Latino man works a most unusual job for the most powerful man in the world. Marvin, who suffers with dilated cardiomyopathy, grooms a young man from the gym for a journey neither are equipped to take.


Young Thieves in a Growing Orchard is a 30,000 word literary fiction short-story collection grounded in contemporary middle class American life revealed in lucid tones of melancholy, grit, poetry, and surprising wonder. At its core, Young Thieves in a Growing Orchard is a journey of securing belonging through discovery, exploration, and oftentimes failure.