The Garden

The Garden is dying. Once an Edenic orchid farm, now it lies in the aftermath of the worst hurricane in Florida’s living memory. Its glasshouses are shattered, the surrounding mangroves encroach, and its men are dangerously idle. So when Romeo, an expert breeder of the endangered ghost orchid, arrives from Honduras, the keeper of the Garden, Blanchard, and his Irish right-hand man, Swallow, believe their fortunes are on the up. But Romeo may not be what he seems, and Swallow can’t shake the feeling that the newcomer threatens the Garden’s creaking hierarchy. The ghost orchid is infamously rare, a delicate and wildly valuable species, hidden deep in the sweltering and treacherous cypress swamps of the Fakahacthee strand. To capture it, Blanchard and Swallow must strike a deal with Logan, a dangerously unpredictable member of the local Seminole tribe. The Seminole are exempt from the laws protecting the endangered species of the glades, but Logan’s wounded pride, and the simmering ebb of violence threaten to uproot any hope of success. As Blanchard’s obsession distracts him from what is truly precious, Swallow’s long-buried traumas test his ability – and desire – to prevent the lust, betrayal and death that engulf the Garden. Under a relentless Florida sun, Paul Perry’s first solo novel is a tale of smothering power, loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning against trespassing upon nature in the name of profit.