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A Novel
by Margot Berwin
Shortly after her divorce, advertising executive Lila Nova purchases her first plant. It's a bird-of-paradise, and the seller is David Exley, a rugged "country-sexual" who seems to promise a paradise of his own making. Lila is immediately obsessed—with plants and with the man who sells them—but when David introduces her to the myth of the nine plants of desire, and when she meets a man named Armand who claims to own the nine plants, her obsession reaches unexpected heights: if she can possess all nine plants, the legend goes, her wildest dreams will be fulfilled.
But Lila is too trusting, and as a result she is soon off on an adventure she never meant to take: in the Yucatán, alone, hefting a backpack full of travel guides and expensive shampoo, and learning more than she ever wanted to know about the rain forest—and about herself.
Plant mythology, shamans and charlatans, mysterious spirit animals, orchid obsessives, scorpions, poisonous snakes, and handsome Huichols ... they’re all here in this tale of mystery, adventure, and heat—in every sense of the word.
"Starred Review. It's a fun page-turner-escapist and wonderfully entertaining." - Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
"What could have been a terrific New York novel morphs into an unconvincing tale of magical realism.... Readers made of sterner stuff might find the journey worth the effort." - Library Journal
"This irresistible, high-energy, mood-elevating, movie-ready tale carries the sweet scent of bestsellerdom." - Booklist
"Poorly executed magical realism." - Kirkus
"[A] shameless guilty pleasure of a romp …. An adventure combining the kinetic, cinematic razzledazzle of a Spielberg fantasia with the Mesoamerican metaphysical mojo of Carlos Castaneda …. [A] sultry, psychedelic summer soufflé of a read." - Elle
"Margot Berwin is equal parts fabulist, botanist, and comedian. I learned a lot from this delightful novel, and now I know just what to do the next time I confront a rattlesnake, a scorpion, or a strange but wise plant man in a Laundromat." – Chris Bohjalian, author of Skeletons at the Feast
This information about Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Margot Berwin earned her MFA from the New School in 2005. Her stories have appeared on Nerve.com, in the New York Press, and in the anthology The Future of Misbehavior. She worked in advertising for many years and lives in New York City.
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