-[A] glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook . . . Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum.- -Hillary Kelly, Vulture
-[A] dazzling, thorny new essay collection.- -Samin Nosrat, The New York Times
Inspired by twenty-six fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history.
A is for aronia, berry member of the apple family, clothes-stainer, superfruit with reputed healing power. D is for durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor-peaches, old garlic. M is for medlar, name-checked by Shakespeare for its crude shape, beloved by gardeners for its flowers. Q is for quince, which, when fresh, gives off the scent of -roses and citrus and rich women-s perfume,- but if eaten raw is so astringent it wicks the juice from one-s mouth.
In a work of unique invention, these
