Publishers Weekly
★ 02/22/2021
Lebo (Pie & Whiskey) considers fruits of all flavors in this sensationally chaotic compendium. She has barely begun her A-to-Z with an entry on Aronia berries (“a tannic pucker that rivals raw quince”) before spiraling into a self-deprecating take on her health obsessions. Each chapter features a different hard-to-wrangle fruit, a discussion of its history and usages, and witty medicinal and culinary recipes (elderberry syrup: “Swallow 1 spoonful a day. Or 7. Whatever you need to stay well”), and are leavened with pungently wrought memoir. In these tangential turns, such as connecting her tasting of durian fruit to eating dim sum with “a man who would never love me,” Lebo never fails to surprise. On the recipe front, many concoctions feel like the result of hard-won battles—one imagines Lebo’s kitchen overflowing with sticky pots and jars—with cravings-inducing taste-combinations such as a barley soup with fennel sausage and “faceclock greens” or vanilla bean cake with buttercream. Unusual and piquant, this off-kilter collection will hit the spot with readers hungry for something a little different. Agent: Emma Paterson, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A Best Book of the Year: The Atlantic, NPR, The Globe and Mail, Electric Lit, New York magazine
Winner of the Washington State Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
Shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Book Award
"[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, New York magazine
"Darkly funny . . . often fascinating, sometimes juicy, rarely dry . . . The Book of Difficult Fruit is brimming with obscure knowledge that’s going to loom over every gin martini I drink for the next decade, and there are fantastic recipes too . . . Delicious and meaningful."
—Alex Beggs, The New York Times Book Review
"A collection of personal essays about family, illness and nature, each linked to a different fruit that—over the years, warranted or otherwise—has developed something of a bad reputation. It is a beautiful read."
—Stuart Heritage, The Guardian
“A brilliant, richly layered and absolutely delicious book. [Lebo's] writing—breathtakingly beautiful, brave and complex—sparkles and lingers . . . Sharp, poetic, enchanting and chockfull of precise language, insight and wit, [The Book of Difficult Fruit] is as well-researched and recipe-tested as it is intimate—contemporary food writing at its finest.”
—Adriana Janovich, Washington State Magazine
“[A] freewheeling, recipe-filled journey through the interconnected natural and social worlds of fruit.”
—Emma Sarappo, The Atlantic
“Weaving botanical and medicinal histories, relationships between people and land, and the idea of nourishment, this book (which includes recipes) is inventive and charming, but it’s also profound and deeply felt. The connection between food and land is never forgotten, and the writing is superb.”
—Sarah Neilson, Buzzfeed
“[A] richly researched food history, gentle memoir and left-field recipe book . . . It would be a shame if this book didn’t attract readers without an existing curiosity in the subject, because Lebo brings as generous an eye to its broader topics—relationships, reproductive health, illness and death—as she does her fruits and their histories and uses, their beauty and their terror.”
—Sophie Morris, i newspaper
“A zingy blend of natural, culinary and personal history . . . A prickly, piquant delight.”
—Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer
"Delightfully unexpected . . . Eloquent, well-researched, and thoughtfully conceived and organized, this genre-defying book will appeal to foodies as well as those who appreciate both fine writing and the pleasures of domestic arts and crafts. A one-of-a-kind reading experience."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred
"Witty . . . Unusual and piquant, this . . . will hit the spot with readers hungry for something a little different."
—Publishers Weekly, starred
“A remarkable combination of food writing, memoir, medical and natural history, and cultural anthropology that's unlike anything you've read before . . . Taking a ‘food book’ into all those areas in a compelling way is a high-wire act that Lebo performs with seeming ease and an inviting style. There are hilarious lines, and poignant reflections as well.”
—Dan Nailen, The Pacific Northwest Inlander
“Imaginative and darkly funny . . . A treat for those who love language and arcane trivia.”
—The Globe and Mail
"Intriguing [and] wonder-filled. Lovers of food and nature writing will appreciate Lebo's rangy, researched ode to wildness."
—Booklist
"Lebo effectively uses fruit as a starting point for exploring raw feelings and offering wry observations about her life, friends, and family. Perhaps the most moving chapters are where Lebo turns inward, focusing on her hopes and dreams and how reflecting on the tastes and textures of various fruits has inspired her to write . . . A genre-blending work that will intrigue readers of literary nonfiction, personal essays, or food history."
—Library Journal
"A glorious blend of cookbook, memoir, and love notes."
—The Helm
“On the arrival of The Book of Difficult Fruit, I started reading it straightaway. And kept going. And kept going. This is a very special, smart, fun, weird, and charming book.”
—Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking with Men and Becoming a Sommelier
“Kate Lebo has written a thorny and twisty memoir disguised as a compendium of problematic fruits (and grains, and stems, and seeds). She doesn’t so much describe as confront her subjects: their poisonous pits, treacherous thorns, offensive odors, and invasive roots. But her buckets of foraged berries, her tart jams, and her bright and potent cordials live in the real world alongside troubled families, rampant wildfires, and the prickly terror of a newfound tumor. Kate Lebo is the best kind of poet-naturalist: her writing is savage and lyrical and scientific all at once. The Book of Difficult Fruit is feral and fierce—and I never thought I’d say that about a book on fruit.”
—Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks
“I loved this sage and sensuous book, and was enraptured by its curious tour through a Wunderkammer of plants, history, and personal narrative. Kate Lebo’s introspection and intelligence gleam on every page as she looks inward and outward through these colorful lenses. Her essays are ripe with illumination, enchantment, and a dash of the haunted.”
—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood
“With rich, puckery prose, Kate Lebo takes us on an engaging journey into her culinary world and offers surprisingly complex stories of neglected fruits that need a little more coaxing than your average blueberry. Here, too, are uncommon recipes for treats like faceclock coffee, gooseberry cheese, juniper bitters, and thimbleberry kvass. And Lebo even generously includes the Osage orange. Its best use? Ha! Read this book and find out.”
—Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile
“The Book of Difficult Fruit is a field guide for cooks and poets, a digestive aid for the pleasures and pains of life in a human body. Kate Lebo’s graceful prose is as searching as it is assured, whether the story leads to medlar jelly or family secrets, a mother’s illness or ume plums. This book is equal parts curiosity, comfort, and quiet brilliance—in short, a work of art.”
—Molly Wizenberg, author of The Fixed Stars and A Homemade Life
Library Journal
03/01/2021
Lebo (Pie School; A Commonplace Book of Pie) begins her latest book by perfectly capturing the difference between reading and executing recipes, which "blend the precision of an instruction manual with the faith of a spell." As a poet, essayist, and baker, the author crosses genres in this essay collection. Lebo's meditations on "difficult fruits" and difficult feelings give readers an opportunity to explore new culinary creations and reflect on how we create our lives through our choices and relationships. Chapters progress alphabetically, investigating familiar fruits such as blackberries and rhubarb, and (possibly) introducing readers to new tastes like durian and medlar. Many of the essays are accompanied by a recipe or two, though this is not a cookbook; rather, Lebo effectively uses fruit as a starting point for exploring raw feelings and offering wry observations about her life, friends, and family. Perhaps the most moving chapters are where Lebo turns inward, focusing on her hopes and dreams and how reflecting on the tastes and textures of various fruits has inspired her to write. VERDICT A genre-blending work that will intrigue readers of literary nonfiction, personal essays, or food history.—Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-02-03
A cookbook writer and poet offers a set of personal essays and recipes centered on fruits that present unique challenges and rewards to cooks, bakers, and food lovers.
Lebo, currently an apprenticed cheesemaker in Spokane, Washington, presents an A-to-Z compendium of her favorite "difficult" fruits. Some, like blackberries, cherries, pomegranates, and vanilla, are familiar. Others, like durian, medlar, and yuzu, are more exotic and harder to find in mainstream grocery stores. What all these fruits have in common is some element that makes them problematic. Blackberries, a central Asian import, have a "growth habit [that is] invasive.” Cherry pits contain amygdalin, which can be used to make almond extract; in the presence of stomach acid, that same substance can create a toxin called hydrogen cyanide. The Southeast Asian durian is "sensationally stinky," and yuzu trees take a decade to produce small harvests on thorny branches. None of these difficulties prevent the author from offering outstanding recipes for traditional fruity treats such as jams, jellies, pies, syrups, and smoothies. She also discusses such delightfully unexpected home and self-care items as paper and cloth dye, lip balm, skin care masks, and even hiker’s toilet paper (thimbleberry leaves). What makes Lebo’s collection so distinctive is the way she interweaves stories about her own life into her celebrations of the fruits. Blackberries, for example, are indelibly linked to smells, tastes, and memories of Lebo’s childhood: “To breathe deep was to be pierced by that scent.” Cherries, especially the maraschino variety, recall an aunt who died of cancer "when she was thirty-four and I was eight”; Lebo believed that her aunt had "caught her disease" from eating processed food. Eloquent, well-researched, and thoughtfully conceived and organized, this genre-defying book will appeal to foodies as well as those who appreciate both fine writing and the pleasures of domestic arts and crafts.
A one-of-a-kind reading experience.
