Humboldt

'In her vivid, hypnotic Humboldt, Emily Brady brings the notoriously secretive pot-growing community of Northern California to life through the lives of four very different Humboldters, whose nuanced stories form together like wisps of smoke.'

Préface
In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox, journalist Emily Brady journeys into a secretive subculture - built on marijuana.

Auteur

Emily Brady was born and raised in northern California. A graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism, she has written for The New York Times, Time, The Village Voice and other publications. She has reported from Latin America, Europe, Asia and New York City and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Texte du rabat

Internet piracy: it's an eternal battle pitting indies versus corporations, free spirits against the money grubbing Scrooge McDucks of the world. Right? Sort of, sometimes - maybe not. Beyond that, it's a reminder of the truism that for every action there are consequences. This book deals with this topic.

Résumé

In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, journalist Emily Brady journeys into a secretive subculture built on marijuana.

Outside the United States, the words 'Humboldt County' mean little. Inside the United States the home of the war on drugs those words can prompt a knowing grin.

Humboldt is a narrative exploration of this insular community in northern California, which for nearly 40 years has existed primarily on the cultivation and sale of marijuana. Emily Brady spent a year living with the highly secretive residents of Humboldt County, and her cast of eccentric, intimately drawn characters take us into a fascinating alternate universe a place where business is done with thick wads of cash, and savings are buried in the backyard.

But as legalisation looms, the community stands at a crossroads, and its inhabitants are deeply divided. Humboldt tells the story of a small town that has become dependent on a forbidden plant, and of how everything is changing as marijuana goes mainstream.