The Book of Difficult Fruit

ΓÇ£[A] glorious mash-up of memoir, love note, and cookbook . . . Every sentence is as sensuous as the first bite into a cold, juicy plum.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöHillary Kelly, Vulture

ΓÇ£[A] dazzling, thorny new essay collection.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöSamin 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 odorΓÇöpeaches, 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 ΓÇ£roses and citrus and rich womenΓÇÖs perfume,ΓÇ¥ but if eaten raw is so astringent it wicks the juice from oneΓÇÖs mouth.

In a work of unique invention, these and other difficult fruits serve as the central ingredients of twenty-six lyrical essays (with recipes). What makes a fruit difficult? Its cultivation, its harvest, its preparation, the brevity of its moment for ripeness, its tendency toward rot or poison, the way it might overrun your garden. Here, these fruits will take you on unexpected turns and give sideways insights into relationships, self-care, land stewardship, medical and botanical history, and so much more. What if the primary way you show love is through baking, but your partner suffers from celiac disease? Why leave in the pits for Willa CatherΓÇÖs plum jam? How can we rely on bodies as fragile as the fruits that nourish them?

Kate LeboΓÇÖs unquenchable curiosity promises adventure: intimate, sensuous, ranging, bitter, challenging, rotten, ripe. After reading The Book of Difficult Fruit, you will never think of sweetness the same way again.