Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate

"Mark Kurlansky is the maestro of metaphor. . . . In his new book, Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, Kurlansky does something similar — but, this time, also slightly different. As anybody who has bought king salmon at $30 a pound can tell you, salmon are not ordinary. They are glamorous. And as Kurlanksy demonstrates, the light they cast on the 21st century Earth is less wondrous than worrisome." -- San Francisco Chronicle “Mark Kurlansky’s Salmon makes the species an ecological poster child and a microcosm of the environmental challenges we face.” –Foreword Reviews “In championing a critically important part of the natural world, Kurlansky sounds an urgent alarm that commands our attention.” –Kirkus Reviews "In more than 40 years of writing, this is the scariest thing I've ever learned. The oceans, especially the Northern Atlantic, are losing the ability to provide food. If the oceans can no longer feed the things that are supposed to live in it, then we're sunk." - Mark Kurlansky, from an interview on Maine Public Radio It is a beautiful book, spangled throughout with stunning color photographs of a lovely fish, of pristine streams and landscapes. It’s a coffee-table book shrunk to shelf-size, but the images are pertinent and illuminating, and there is nothing throwaway about the text that surrounds them or about the recipes for salmon dishes from all over the world and past centuries." -- Wall Street Journal "...this is a very handsome book with fantastic images and illustrations that are worthy complements to the writing. For $30, a serious nature of angling aficionado can't find a better value. This is one of the best books I've read in recent years, and it remains a fixture on my writing desk." -- Trout Magazine "Salmon is rich in details, and a love story by one of the world’s foremost journalists." -- Tom Rosenbauer, Fly Fisherman Magazine "Even if you are unlikely to ever swing Sunray Shadows for these fish, this book deserves your attention, because Salmon is a clarion call. If we can cause this much ecosystem damage to just one family of fish, it puts into stark relief the damage we wreak on other species." - The Mission Fly Magazine "Attractive enough to reside on your coffee table but small enough to fit on a shelf, the book's 448 pages are filled with more than 150 photographs and illustrations that provide additional insight into the chronicle of these fish and their interaction with man. . . . In these pages, Kurlansky puts us on notice. The time to act is now." --the Virginia Sportsman