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Banana, January 2008
Hardcover
The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
Hudson Street Press
January 2008
On Sale: December 27, 2007
304 pages
ISBN: 1594630380
EAN: 9781594630385
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A gripping biological detective story that uncovers the
myth, mystery, and endangered fate of the world’s most
humble fruit To most people, a banana is a banana: a simple yellow fruit.
Americans eat more bananas than apples and oranges combined.
In others parts of the world, bananas are what keep millions
of people alive. But for all its ubiquity, the banana is
surprisingly mysterious; nobody knows how bananas evolved or
exactly where they originated. Rich cultural lore surrounds
the fruit: In ancient translations of the Bible, the “apple”
consumed by Eve is actually a banana (it makes sense,
doesn’t it?). Entire Central American nations have been said
to rise and fall over the banana. But the biggest mystery about the banana today is whether it
will survive. A seedless fruit with a unique reproductive
system, every banana is a genetic duplicate of the next, and
therefore susceptible to the same blights. Today’s yellow
banana, the Cavendish, is increasingly threatened by such a
blight—and there’s no cure in sight. Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a
fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise,
and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana
subculture (one does exist)—ultimately taking us to the
high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built
in test tubes, in a race to save the world’s most beloved fruit.
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