Audiobook11 hours
The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession
Written by Adam Leith Gollner
Narrated by Stephen Hoye
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Tasty, lethal, hallucinogenic, and medicinal-fruits have led nations into wars, fueled dictatorships, and even lured us into new worlds. Adam Leith Gollner weaves business, science, and travel into a riveting narrative about one of earth's most desired foods.
Listeners will discover why it is that although countless exotic fruits exist in nature, only several dozen varieties are available in supermarkets. Gollner explores the political machinations of multinational fruit corporations, exposing the hidden alliances between agribusiness and government and what that means for public health. 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.
Gollner draws readers into a Willy Wonka–like world with mangoes that taste like piNa coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits, and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a varied and bizarre cast of characters-from smugglers to explorers to inventors-this extraordinary book unveils the hidden universe of fruit.
Listeners will discover why it is that although countless exotic fruits exist in nature, only several dozen varieties are available in supermarkets. Gollner explores the political machinations of multinational fruit corporations, exposing the hidden alliances between agribusiness and government and what that means for public health. 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.
Gollner draws readers into a Willy Wonka–like world with mangoes that taste like piNa coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits, and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a varied and bizarre cast of characters-from smugglers to explorers to inventors-this extraordinary book unveils the hidden universe of fruit.
Author
Adam Leith Gollner
Adam Leith Gollner has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and Lucky Peach. The former editor of Vice Magazine, his first book is The Fruit Hunters. He lives in Montreal.
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Reviews for The Fruit Hunters
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
4 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved the descriptions of the different fruits and and even bought an Ice Cream Bean tree after hearing about them
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5There's a lot of fascinating information in this wildly discursive book. There's also a fair bit of meandering and repetition, which knocked my rating down some. It's worth a look but might be better skimmed than read.