Winterchill

This ``homespun, deceptively simple saga,'' told from six separate points of view and spanning the '50s through the '80s, focuses on a luckless family and their California plum orchard. ``Finney writes about the salt of the earth in the tradition of Steinbeck,'' said PW . ``Without artifice, he gives voice to his characters' rage, dreams, grief and love of the land.'' (Oct.)