The Orchid Thief
A True Story of Beauty and Obsession
Random House Publishing Group · Print & ebook · January 4, 2000
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • THE BASIS FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION DIRECTED BY SPIKE JONZE AND STARRING NICOLAS CAGE AND MERYL STREEP The “eccentric, illuminating, [and] hilarious” (New York Daily News) true story of beauty and obsession in the swamps of Florida and the impassioned individuals who risk everything for the ultimate prize: a rare ghost orchid “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times Meet John Laroche, a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive renegade plant dealer.
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- Who it’s for
- Follow an orchid obsession into a strange subculture, where botanical passion meets crime and comic absurdity.
- Themes
- Obsession with plants, Rare-orchid smuggling, Florida's flower-selling subculture
- Pacing
- Mixed
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • THE BASIS FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION DIRECTED BY SPIKE JONZE AND STARRING NICOLAS CAGE AND MERYL STREEP The “eccentric, illuminating, [and] hilarious” (New York Daily News) true story of beauty and obsession in the swamps of Florida and the impassioned individuals who risk everything for the ultimate prize: a rare ghost orchid “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times Meet John Laroche, a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive renegade plant dealer.
Continue reading
In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole men were arrested with rare ghost orchids—Polyrrhiza lindenii—they had stolen from a wild swamp in South Florida. Laroche had planned to clone the endangered orchids and sell them for a small fortune to impassioned buyers. In The Orchid Thief, acclaimed journalist Susan Orlean follows Laroche through swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida’s orchid collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. This unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture becomes even more bizarre as Orlean details how the head of a famous Seminole chief came to be displayed in the front window of a local pharmacy, how seven hundred iguanas were smuggled into Florida, and the case of the only known extraterrestrial plant crime. A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is a wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession.
Botanical Obsession
Follow an orchid obsession into a strange subculture, where botanical passion meets crime and comic absurdity.
Come here for
- A rare-orchid obsession tangled with theft and Florida’s eccentric plant trade
- Susan Orlean’s witty, curious personal journalism
Expect
- A lively tour through the world of orchid collectors and smugglers
- Elegant, wry reporting on the peculiar places obsession can lead
Where it sits
| True Crime | 62% |
|---|---|
| Orchids | 43% |
| Criminals & Outlaws | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Adventurers & Explorers
- Flowers
- Adventure Travel
- Authors
- Susan Orlean
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group
- Published
- January 4, 2000
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Obsession with plants · Rare-orchid smuggling · Florida's flower-selling subculture
- Reading lane
- Adventurers & Explorers