The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession | 
| Author: Adam Leith Gollner
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $15.33
You Save: $9.67 (39%)
New (30) Used (9) from $14.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 7505
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 074329694X
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.34
EAN: 9780743296946
ASIN: 074329694X
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 pina 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A fascinating read. July 14, 2008
I found this book not only informative but the prose was exquisite and made a big subject readable and enjoyable and hungry for fruit.
 Excellent plant enthusiast summer read July 10, 2008
I've been growing tropical fruit for over ten years and have read many books on the subject. When I ran across the Fruit Hunters from a NYTimes article I knew I just had to read this book. I'm glad I did. Its well worth reading this book for not only the knowledge but the entertainment value. The Author throws out many factoids and interesting stories in this book. Not only are the fruits interesting but the people who grow and pursue the fruits are fascinating. I highly recommend this book. The tagline "A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and OBSESSION" is perfect for this. Get it.
You'll want to hop on a plane to Borneo July 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Journalist Gollner finds endless summer in his travels around the world seeking strange and luscious fruit at the very peak of quality. Alas for the rest of us, the best is always local, but Gollner shares his experiences so vividly it's almost like being there. Almost.
Check out his description of the miracle fruit, which turns sour flavors sweet, and has, incidentally, done wonders for the sales of this little berry:
"Where at first I could barely lick the puckeringly tart African lemon without wincing, now I'm gulping it down, licking up the juice on my chin. Even the bits on my teeth are ecstatically sweet, like liquefied filaments of pure joy. My head is swimming. Neurons never-before activated are firing up my central cortex. I greedily eat up the whole lemon, detecting hints of crystallized grapes and berries. While it isn't exactly 12345 Center of the Sun Avenue, it's definitely psychedelic."
The charm of Gollner's debut isn't just his sensuous, hip and funny writing style, or the infectious enthusiasm that will have readers longing to race off to Borneo for a soccer-ball sized tarap, which tastes like a "fully constructed dessert," or a mangosteen or a chempedak or, Borneo's most notorious fruit, the durian, a custardy delicacy with a smell so noxious a Manhattan tasting party emptied the building.
No, there's more. Gollner ferrets out the real fruit hunters, those who have dedicated their lives to fruits. These are an odd and varied bunch, from seriously fanatical scientists and growers to those who believe a pure fruit diet will lead to Nirvana, super wealthy hobbyists who indulge their passion by smuggling, and schemers who inject apples with grape flavor to produce grapples. The fruit world is apparently rife with talented nuts.
Gollner gets behind the politics of fruit - the buzz around miracle fruit's potential in the sweetener market and the sudden FDA ban that brought it all to naught; the reasons, from destructive pests to protectionism, that many fruits are banned from our borders, and the origin of the banana republic.
He delves into the marketing and shipping and consequent dearth of quality in our supermarket fruit; he explores health-giving properties and legends; he introduces varieties we never could even imagine like the lady fruit, which grows only in the Seychelles, has oversized parts which look like human genitalia and takes 7 years to produce a mature fruit.
He explores the world of fruit crime, from smuggling to money laundering, and the role of humans in producing the finest fruits. Fruit biology, history, even fruit intelligence, weaves through this entertaining, informative, even riveting narrative. Readers will look forward to tagging along on Gollner's next adventure.
 Major disappointment June 26, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
A missed opportunity. A really interesting topic wasted, in my
opinion, by poor writing and a clumsy approach to the subject.
Well, I will give him a pass. It's his first book and he probably
couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the subject. But I found this
book very tedious to read.
Terrific June 3, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
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