Audiobooks by Mark Kurlansky

To Catch a Fish: Essays on the Joy, Frustration, Curiosity, and Allure of Fishing

"From the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, To Catch a Fish is an entertaining and beautifully written illustrated collection of essays that explore a lifetime fascination with fishing. For as long as there have been humans, there have been humans trying to catch fish. The two species-fish and man-live in constant tension. One chases the other. One tries to get away. Some of us-author Mark Kurlansky included-are hard-wired for that chase. Guiding readers through the waters and into the mind of the fish, Kurlansky considers who fish are and why they behave the way they do, and along the way delves into the many approaches to catching a fish, their ecology, and the ins and outs of cooking and eating your catch. Whether you're a seasoned angler or a novice, or simply want to explore the world of fish, the forty short essays in this collection and the dazzling illustrations by Bri Dostie, shed new light on these creatures and our relationship to them. "

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Paul Bellantoni (Narrator)

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Cheesecake: A Novel

"Bloomsbury presents Cheesecake by Mark Kurlanksy, read by Nathan Agin From New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky, a delectable novel following one Manhattan block as an ancient cheesecake recipe—and a conniving landlord—change the Upper West Side forever. West 86th Street knows its desserts. It’s the 1970s, and poppyseed strudel, praline ice cream cake, and New York cheesecake are as integral to Manhattan’s Upper West Side as clustered pigeons, suited doormen, and greasy diners. That is, until Cato comes to town. Cato the Elder, a Roman born in 234 BCE, is credited with the earliest written recipe ever found. A recipe for . . . cheesecake. No cream cheese, no graham cracker crust, somehow savory and sweet, the recipe is enigmatic—and suddenly, it’s all anyone on West 86th Street can talk about. The Katsikases, a Greek cheesemaking family who immigrated to open a restaurant in New York, added Cato’s pastry to their menu as a ploy to attract “upscale” diners. After a glowing write-up in the Times, the recipe becomes a neighborhood fixation—and the Katsikases’ patriarch, Art, buys up as much of the block’s real estate as he can. As the portentous pastry appears in the lives of the old-school residents Art is pricing out of their apartments, a sidewalk view of West 86th Street emerges: A high-profile family planning a high-pressure bat mitzvah, a painter’s muse with a terrible secret, an eccentric art collector plotting revenge. Sometimes laced with green M&Ms, sometimes with sage, sometimes with spite, Cato’s cheesecake heralds change as West 86th Street is transformed for good. P 2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC C 2025 Mark Kurlansky"

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Nathan Agin (Narrator)

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The Core of an Onion: Peeling the Rarest Common Food—Featuring More Than 100 Historical Recipes

"Bloomsbury presents The Core of an Onion written and read by Mark Kurlansky. An Eater Best Food Book of 2023 A Smithsonian Best Food Book of 2023 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cod and Salt, a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and gastronomical layers of one of the world’s most beloved culinary staples—featuring original illustrations and recipes from around the world—now in paperback. As Julia Child once said, “It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions.” Historically, she’s been right—and not just in the kitchen. Flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for sautés, stews, and sauces, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Now they're Kurlansky's most flavorful infatuation yet as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns from Italy to India and everywhere in between. Featuring historical images and his own pen-and-ink drawings, Kurlansky begins with the science and history of the only sulfuric acid–spewing plant, then digs through its twenty varieties and the cultures built around them. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including a recipe section featuring more than one hundred dishes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrated Parisian chef Alain Senderens’s onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway’s raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion. Just as the scent of sautéed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Mark Kurlansky (Narrator)

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The Importance of Not Being Ernest: A Writing Life with an Uninvited Guest

"An Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other Discover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Timesbestselling author of Salt Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts. The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain—both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing. Key West, Havana, and Chicago. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there—those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing. In this unique gift for writers, find: • A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative stories • Little-known historical facts about Hemingway’s life • Anecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”"

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Adam Grupper (Narrator)

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The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing

"Bloomsbury presents The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing written and read by Mark Kurlansky. National Outdoor Book Award Winner for Outdoor Literature From the award-winning, bestselling author of Cod—the irresistible story of the science, history, art, and culture of the least efficient way to catch a fish. Fly fishing, historian Mark Kurlansky has found, is a battle of wits, fly fisher vs. fish—and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets—salmon, trout, and char; and for some, bass, tarpon, tuna, bonefish, and even marlin—are highly intelligent, wily, strong, and athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky learns, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. There is an art, too, in the crafting of flies. Beautiful and intricate, some are made with more than two dozen pieces of feather and fur from a wide range of animals. The cast as well is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results. Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into the history of specific subjects, from cod to oysters to salt. But he spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, a lifelong love of the sport has led him around the world to many countries, coasts, and rivers—from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from the Catskills in New York to Oregon's Columbia River, from Ireland and Norway to Russia and Japan. And, in true Kurlansky fashion, he absorbed every fact, detail, and anecdote along the way. The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing marries Kurlansky's signature wide-ranging reach with a subject that has captivated him for a lifetime—combining history, craft, and personal memoir to show readers, devotees of the sport or not, the necessity of experiencing nature’s balm first-hand. C 2021 Mark Kurlansky P 2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC"

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Mark Kurlansky (Narrator)

Audiobook

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

"In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon. During his research Kurlansky traveled widely and observed salmon and those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific and the Atlantic, in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, and even the robust but not as frequently visited Kamchatka Peninsula. This world tour reveals an eras-long history of man's misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environments for his own benefit and gain, whether for entertainment or to harvest food. In addition, Kurlansky's research shows that all over the world these fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a natural barometer for the health of the planet. He documents that for centuries man's greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, are evidenced in the sensitive life cycle of salmon. Kurlansky's insightful conclusion is that the only way to save salmon is to save the planet and, at the same time, the only way to save the planet is to save the mighty, heroic salmon."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Mark Kurlansky (Narrator)

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Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Jon Van Ness (Narrator)

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Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea

"In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power. Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a 'dangerous' idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a 'just war'? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history? Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners-Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated. Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come"

H.H. Dalai Lama, Mark Kurlansky (Author), Richard Dreyfuss (Narrator)

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The Basque History of the World

"Occupying a small corner of Spain and France, the Basque people truly believe they should live in their own private country—and in this engaging history, best-selling author Mark Kurlansky explains why. Evidence of the Basque showed up as early as 218 BC, and now, with a population of more than two million, their influence on our world has been all-pervasive. In this illuminating exploration, Kurlansky captures the lives of the Basque people and their culture. Listeners will be enthralled as Kurlansky delves into the roots of an intriguing population, detailing their entire history from their language Euskara—the most ancient in Europe—and economy to their culinary tastes and social life."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), George Guidall (Narrator)

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Salt: A World History

"The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance—salt, the only rock humans eat—and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

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Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

"The cod has played a vital part in livelihoods, diets, and health in general—as well as roles in national economies and international wars. Drawing on his love of food and food culture, Mark Kurlansky leaps into history and folklore to explore how this innocuous fish had such an impact over the centuries. Kurlansky recounts how the cod spurred interest in the development of North America and caused a whole nation of people to jump into fishing and ocean exploration. In addition to providing word origins, this audiobook contains uses for all kinds of cod and recipes dating from the fourteenth century."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Richard M. Davidson (Narrator)

Audiobook

1968: The Year That Rocked the World

"Over the course of one pivotal year, events that shaped American and world history took place: The North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive. Prague Spring began. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Students protested across the United States and around the world. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago was besieged by riots. Apollo 11 launched. And Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States. In the same year, Black athletes raised their fists in protest at the Olympic Games, 'Hey Jude' became the Beatles biggest hit, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. In many ways, this momentous year led us to where we are today. Covering popular culture, politics, war, economics, and the media, Mark Kurlansky shows how twelve volatile months transformed who we were as a people. But above all, he offers provocative insights into the underlying causes of the historical phenomenon that was the year 1968."

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Christopher Cazenove (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by Mark Kurlansky

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