The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Adam Leith Gollner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2008

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.

Readers will discover why even though countless exotic fruits exist in nature, only several dozen varieties are vailable 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 piña 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.


From the Hardcover edition.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (May 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074329694X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743296946
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Me Want To Eat Fruit!, June 1, 2008

By 

Komsedrol "Komsedrol" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, June 2, 2008

By 

Robert "Bob" (Grafton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession (Hardcover)

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.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, peel and all!, June 2, 2008

By 

Zoe Meletis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession (Hardcover)

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!