Susan Orlean is the author of the current New York Times bestseller, The Library Book, a true crime investigation of the 1986 fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Public Library, and an account of the fire’s aftermath that illustrates the crucial role that libraries play in individual lives and communities. The book is widely described by reviewers as “a love letter to libraries and books.” A staff writer at The New Yorker for a quarter century, Orlean is the author of seven books, including The Orchid Thief (1998), an international bestseller that became the hit film, Adaptation (2002), starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep (who portrays the author herself).