Susan Orlean first met John Laroche when visiting Florida to write for the New Yorker about his arrest for stealing rare ghost orchids from a nature reserve. Fascinated both by Laroche and the world she uncovered of orchid collectors and growers, she stayed on, to write this magical exploration of obsession and the strange world both of the orchid obsessives and of Florida, that haunting and weird 'debatable land' of swamps and condos, retirement communities and real-estate scams.

The world of the orchid hunters, breeders and showmen, their rivalries, vendettas and crimes, smuggling, thefts and worse provide the backdrop to a fascinating exploration of one of the byways of human nature, the obsessive world of the collector, and the haunting beauty of the flowers themselves.

• We started tracking this book on October 8, 2014.
• This book was £4.68 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 28 times in the past 3,935 days.
• The current price of this book is £8.99 last checked 5 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is £7.99.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £6.99.
• The lowest price to date was £2.99 last reached on June 18, 2021.
• This book has been £2.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £9.99 last reached on June 7, 2025.
• This book has been £9.99 one time since we started tracking it.

• Publication Date: July 15, 2009
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 370 Pages
• File Size: 751 KB