The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

By Susan Orlean

Categories: Science & Math

Susan Orlean set out to report on John Laroche, an eccentric Florida plant dealer arrested with three Seminole men for taking rare orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand, a swamp preserve, which he hoped to clone and sell. Her pursuit of the story, begun in a 1995 New Yorker article, becomes a tour of orchid history, collectors and the elusive ghost orchid, and a meditation on passion and obsession. The book inspired the film Adaptation.

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