Product Description

Delicious, lethal, hallucinogenic and medicinal, fruits have led nations to war, fueled dictatorships and lured people into new worlds. An expedition through the fascinating world of fruit, The Fruit Hunters is the engrossing story of some 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 piña coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour to sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a cast of characters as varied and bizarre 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); traces the life of mass-produced fruits (how they are created, grown and marketed) and 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224009 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Journalist Gollner's debut is a rollicking account of the world of fruit and fruit fanatics. He's traveled to many countries in search of exotic fruits, and he describes in sensuous detail some of the hundreds of varieties he's sampled, among them peanut butter fruit, blackberry-jam fruit and coco-de-mer—a suggestively shaped coconut known as the lady fruit that grows only in the Seychelles. Equally intriguing are some of the characters he has encountered—a botanist in Borneo who spends his life studying malodorous durians; fruitarians who believe that a fruit diet promotes transcendental experiences; fruitleggers who bypass import laws; and fruit inventors such as the fabricator of the Grapple—which looks like an apple and tastes like a grape. The FDA and the often dubious activities of the international fruit trade, multinational corporations like Chiquita, come in for scrutiny, as does New York City's largest wholesale produce market, in a chapter with more information than one may want on biochemical growth inhibitors, hormone-based retardants, dyes, waxes and corrupt USDA inspectors. 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. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Fruit plays a pivotal role in human history, from Adam’s apple to George Washington Carver’s peanuts and beyond. Both poetry and prose would be impoverished if metaphors and similes involving fruit were expunged. Gollner looks at the present state of fruit in the world, ranging from everyday banalities of bananas to exotica such as passion fruit. He travels to the tropics to learn about fruits firsthand. Along the way, he encounters fruitarians, who advocate a strictly fruit diet. Other fruit-obsessed characters include the brilliant David Karp, a former junkie who now gets his kicks from fresh fruit. Some fanatics go so far as to smuggle fruits across national borders, risking importation of fruit-borne pathogens. The fruit of the moment, the Australian finger lime, entrances master chefs with its culinary potential. Despite their seeming naturalness, many common fruits would be unknown or extinct without human intervention in grafting, breeding, and conservation. --Mark Knoblauch

Review
"The Fruit Hunters is a delectable journey through jungles, street markets and orchards in search of the world' s most exotic fruits. Gollner' s quest for the forbidden coco-de-mer, his love affair with the chupa-chupa and his durian-induced intoxication make him as fascinating a narrator as the fruit hunters, farmers and scientists he encounters along the way. I loved taking this culinary adventure with Gollner -- anyone who brings mangost eens to parties is welcome at my table." -- Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential

"We have swooned with delight over Michigan's late-summer Bing cherries, but such moments of roadside pleasure pale in comparison to the passions that drive fruit hunters to discover and nurture exotics never found in supermarkets. Oh, how we would love to suck on a miracle berry of Africa and savor a tiger-striped fig! Adam Leith Gollner's mesmerizing account of fruits that are rare or commercial, erotic or medicinal, and of the sometimes nutty characters who care about them provokes righteous indignation over how much we are denied as well as a ravenous appetite to taste it. " -- Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Roadfood

"Adam Leith Gollner is the best kind of monomaniac. Hess a writer in love with his subject, an obsessive chasing after obsessives. And what a fruitful Eden this Adam has discovered: the global underworld of rare-fruit aficionados, fruitarians, fruit smugglers and fruit detectives. Lyrical and well informed, exuberant and erudite and recounted with aptly ripe turns of phrase, The Fruit Hunters is the heartfelt and always fascinating story of the quest for the sweetest prizes the natural world has to offer". -- Taras Grescoe, author of Bottomfeeder and The Devil's Picnic

Customer Reviews

Makes Me Want To Eat Fruit!
First of all I have to say that I'm not a big fruit eater. I like the taste of most fruits, but the ones I buy in the supermarket are waxy, bland, and have textures that don't correspond to how I think the fruit looks.

I was reading an early posting of the Sunday New York Times book review last week and I came across Mary Roach's review of this book. The review was so outstanding that it made me want to explore the book, even though I'm not particularly inclined to fruit or nature writing. The next day I went out and bought the book and read it almost in one sitting. I was transfixed, to say the least. And hungry: Gollner's book made me want to jump on a plane to Brazil and find all the marvelous fruits that he wrote about, fruits that made my mind spin and mouth salivate. Who knew there were such delightful things such as the "bran muffin" fruit? Reading this book is feels like an illicit glimpse into the Garden of Eden.

Gollner is a great writer: funny, brisk, informative without being too didactic. His pacing and narrative abilities are excellent; what could have been a dull book about colorful things reads like a thriller at times. This book to me a little like the exotic fruits Gollner so vividly and lovingly describes: it's a rare pleasure that I'm lucky I discovered.

Terrific
When I ran across this title at Barnes and Noble, I assumed it was a Mark Kurlansky type treatment of the subject, erudite and educational, but not really my cup of tea. Boy was I wrong! I had googled miracle fruit since I had done some research on the subject, and I found that there was a chapter in this book on that subject. I went right out and bought a copy, read the chapter. I had no idea of the real story behind miracle fruit (which, by the way, is experiencing skyrocketing prices thanks to this book). I read the rest of the book. Adam has a quirky sense of humor which translates very well in writing. Anyone that is interested in ethnobotany, fruit, plants or just a great summer read on the beach should buy the book. Let's hope Mr. Gollner is working on his next book.

Great book, peel and all!
Adam Leith Gollner's new book The Fruit Hunters (2008) is like a sweet and sour jawbreaker---- a tasty treat with many layers to enjoy, never knowing which flavour comes next. Anyone who loves exotic fruit and adventures in far off places will savour this book and all of its fruit-filled wanderings.

I once had the opportunity to eat cottony guanabana in Costa Rica, and to sip dragonfruit juice in Vietnam.... Now that I am strapped to my desk, and limited to munching on banal fruits like apples and oranges, I greatly appreciated being able to travel to far-off places with Gollner as he explored fruit hunting stomping grounds like Brazil and the Congo.

Gollner's writing is an intriguing mix of delicate prose and hipster slang--a modern style that is entertaining and thoughtful. I would highly recommend this captivating and informative book to anyone who is a fruit bat like me; it's full of fun fruit-filled history and trivia (and has an excellent index for double-checking fruit facts).

If, like me, you are still eating your way through all of the recent and exciting food-focused books like Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (2001), Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire (2001) & The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2008), this book makes a sweet addition to your forays into agriculture, food production, shady food histories and politics, and the commodity chains that land things in our grocery carts, our fruit bowls, and our bellies. So... prepare a nice dish of salted green mangoes and settle down with The Fruit Hunters--you will not be disappointed!