Cod

James Beard Award Winner

“This eminently readable book is a new tool for scanning world history. It leads to a vastly different perception of why folks did what they did… history filtered through the gills of the fish trade.” — The New York Times

“A charming fish tale and a pretty gift for your favorite seafood cook or fishing monomaniac. But in the last analysis, it’s a bitter ecological fable for our time.” –Los Angeles Times

“Every once in a while a writer of particular skill takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. Such is the case of Mark Kurlansky and the codfish.” –David McCullough, author of 1776, John Adams, and The Wright Brothers

“One of the 25 Best Books of the Year.” –The New York Public Library

“A subject as mighty and tragic as this deserves an excellent biographer, and in Mark Kurlansky, cod has found one. Beautifully written and elegantly illustrated . . . Kurlansky’s marvelous fish opus stands as a reminder of what good non-fiction used to be: eloquent, learned, and full of earthy narratives that delight and appall.” –The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“In the end the book stands as a kind of elegy, a loving eulogy not only to a fish, but to the people whose lives have been shaped by the habits of the fish, and whose way of life is now at an end.” –Newsday

“What a prodigious creature is the cod. Kurlansky’s approach is intriguing – and deceptively whimsical. This little book is a work of no small consequence.” –Business Week

“In the story of the cod, Mark Kurlansky has found the tragic fable of our age – abundance turned to scarcity through determined shortsightedness. This classic history will stand as an epitaph and a warning.” -Bill McKibben

“This is an extraordinary little book, unputdownable, written in the most lyrical, flowing style which paints vivid pictures and, at the same time, punches into place hard facts that stop you dead in your tracks. Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done “-– Sir Roy Strong ― Express on Sunday (London)

“An engrossing and timely little epic” ― Scotsman (Edinburgh)

“To go out and buy a book on the subject (of cod) is to invite glances of suspicion. While a few eccentrics might think this is a good reason to purchase several copies, for the rest of us it requires a certain leap of faith. Cod…amply rewards such a leap. It is compact and beautifully produced”― Mail on Sunday (London)

“Refreshing and invigorating, full of fascinating facts”― Independent on Sunday (London)