Cod, Mark Kurlansky s third work of nonfiction and winner of the 1999 James Bear
d Award, is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a w
orld history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turn
s out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only
reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five exp
editions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in th
e frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the stap
le of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic peo
ple with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the c
enturies of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tra
gic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their
numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponde
rs the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world
's folly?
