Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

Description: Mark Kurlansky's classic history of the mighty fish that became "the tragic fable of our age" (Bill McKibben)-with a new foreword by New York Times bestselling fish afficionado Paul Greenberg.

Brief description:

Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Milk!, Havana, Paper, The Big Oyster, 1968, and The Basque History of the World, among other titles. His most recent book, Cheesecake, was published by Bloomsbury in 2025. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appétit's Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. He is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and frequently contributes to the New York Times and the London Guardian. A four-time Jeopardy! clue, he lives in New York City.
www.markkurlansky.com

Review Quotes:

"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." --The Los Angeles Times

"This eminently readable book is a new tool for scanning world history. . . Cod is history filtered through the gills of the fish trade." --The New York Times

"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 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