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The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Adventure. Adam Leith Gollner Published May 2008 by Scribner (US) and Doubleday (Canada) Delicious, lethal, hallucinogenic, and medicinal—fruits have led nations to war, fueled dictatorships, and lured people into new worlds. An expedition through the bizarre and fascinating world of fruit, The Fruit Hunters is the engrossing story of one of earth’s most desired foods. In lustrous prose Adam Leith Gollner draws readers into a Willy Wonka-like world with mangoes that taste like piÒa coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits, and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a cast of characters as varied and magical as the fruit—smugglers, inventors, explorers and epicures—this extraordinary book unveils the mysterious universe of fruit, from the jungles of Borneo to the prized orchards of Florida’s fruit hunters to American supermarkets. Gollner examines the fruits we eat and explains why we eat them—the scientific, economic, and aesthetic reasons; he traces the life of mass-produced fruits—how they are created, grown, and marketed; and he explores the underworld of fruits that are inaccessible, ignored, and even forbidden in the Western world. An intrepid journalist and keen observer of nature—both human and botanical—Adam Leith Gollner has written a vivid tale of horticultural obsession.
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Contact: Molly Dorozenski (212) 632 4946 AUTHOR EXPLORES THE WORLD OF EXOTIC AND BIZARRE FRUIT, FROM THE MIRACLE FRUIT TO THE DURIAN, THE ICE CREAM BEAN TO THE YUM YUM THE FRUIT HUNTERS A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession By Adam Leith Gollner (The Fruit Hunters) is a rollicking account of the world of fruit and fruit fanatics…Gollner’s passion for fruit is infectious, and his fascinating book is a testament to the fact that there is much more to the world of fruit than the bland varieties on our supermarket shelves." ─Publisher’s Weekly "A fresh, juicy and highly satisfying treat."─ Kirkus Review"A beautiful and evocative book… Adam Leith Gollner  THE
FRUIT HUNTERS (Scribner; May 20, 2008; ISBN# 0-7432-9494-6)Adam Gollner travels into the heart of humankind’s obsession with fruit, searching the globe to taste the fruits most of us have never even heard of: tens of thousands of edible plant species, and hundreds of thousands of varieties—too many to count. With only a few dozen varieties available at your local supermarket, even the most passionate fruit lovers might never taste a cloudberry, an ice cream bean or a peanut butter fruit. From the apple orchards of Washington to the forests of Bali and beyond, Gollner discovers: In Gollner’s lush prose, he luxuriates in the names of these fruits: "magic beans, sundrops, cannon balls, delicious monsters, zombie apples…" he rhapsodizes, "…far-fars, lab-labs, num-nums, jum-lums." He brings his never-waning exuberance and virtuosic sentences to the much harder task of describing the tastes and scents of each variety. Descending into a Technicolor world where fruit reigns supreme, Gollner weaves business, science, and travel into a riveting narrative about one of earth’s most desired foods—fruit. But more than just the story of fruit, THE FRUIT HUNTERS is the story of people, just like Gollner, whose obsessions lead them across the globe, seeking new varieties, smuggling, trading, selling, inventing, cataloging and buying. You will meet David Karp, the Fruit Detective, whose devotion to fruit inspires Gollner to call him "America’s expert on fine fruit." He introduces us to a group of seemingly insane Fruitarians living in Thailand who eat ten pounds of fruit daily. He writes about Gary Snyder, the shady inventor of the "Grapple" an artificially grape-flavored apple, whose patents hide some surprising secrets about his process. He also reports on the business side of the fruit world, explaining how fruit is grown, shipped and marketed in the U.S. and tells the incredible success story of the Kiwi (hint: it’s all in the name!) and describes, in vivid detail, Hunt’s Point, the seedy, rough-and-tumble market in the Bronx where all our fruit must pass through on its way to our tables. He even reveals how international politics affect the fruits we eat, from mangos to bananas. In this ambitious and beautifully written book, Gollner considers every side of this complicated story. He wonders why it is that fruit inspires so much passion in people, and how it came to be that a pale January strawberry has replaced fruit eaten at the peak of ripeness. From how fruit is grown, to how it is marketed to what ends up on our table, Gollner delves deep into our fruit obsessions and takes us deep into the Garden of Eden, where all our desires began. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adam Leith Gollner has traveled around the globe to report on the fruit underworld. He’s written for The New York Times, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, the Globe and Mail and Good Magazine. The former editor of Vice Magazine, he is also a musician and filmmaker. This is his first book. He lives in Montreal and Los Angeles. THE FRUIT HUNTERS • May 20, 2008 • $25.00 • ISBN: 0-7432-9694-6 ABOUT SIMON & SCHUSTER Simon & Schuster, a part of the CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Online, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonsays.com |