Overview

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.

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9781922070609

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Reviews

'In her book *Humboldt*, Emily Brady takes us on a rowdy off-road trip into the homeland of marijuana moonshining, where pit bulls guard the fields, cash fills up holes in the ground, and it's a bad idea to ask anyone you encounter what they do for a living.' Bruce Porter, New York Times bestselling author of Blow 'Emily Brady escorts you into the redwood-studded mountains of northern California where a secretive marijuana culture thrives-for now-outside the law. Deeply reported and populated with vibrant characters spanning generations, Humboldt documents the real lives behind America's favorite high. A fascinating and timely read.' David Kinney, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of The Big One 'Emily Brady has written a masterful opus dopus-to borrow a phrase from her book-chronicling the dreams and struggles of a community that has become infamous worldwide for their controversial cash crop. In Humboldt, she takes a clear-eyed look at the marijuana industry: its growers, trimmers, dealers, and family-run businesses. Readers will come away with a newfound and nuanced understanding of pot, but this is really a book about people whose outrageous, funny, and heartbreaking stories you won't soon forget.' Brooke Hauser, author of THE NEW KIDS: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens 'In a rare journalistic feat, Emily Brady burrowed deep inside an infamous subculture and emerged with a luminous but haunting dispatch about a secretive community of outlaw pot growers--some of whom would rather risk their lives than see their profits crushed by the decriminalization of cannabis. Brady's brave reporting pulls no punches yet makes no judgments as she chronicles four people torn by their allegiances to a place that represents the beauty and ruthlessness of the modern American frontier-and the hypocrisy of the country's drug policy. Humboldt is a triumph of immersion reporting: vivid, compassionate, maddening and unforgettable.' Jonathan Schuppe, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of A Chance to Win '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.' Julian Rubinstein, author of the international bestseller Ballad of the Whiskey Robber '[A] multigenerational epic about the pathologies and paradoxes of the nation's biggest weed-based economy ... [*Humboldt* is] an empathetic but unflinching portrait of a community caught in the legalization movement's crosswinds.' Josh Harkinson, Mother Jones '[A] compelling, detailed look at the life of this highly idiosyncratic and necessarily secretive community.' Los Angeles Review of Books '[A] window into the secretive milieu of marijuana, money and murder [and] an intriguing narrative about a world far removed from the common daily grind.' Adelaide Advertiser

Author Information

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.

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