Product Details

Wall Street Journal

Eminently readable . . . anecdote-rich and quirky.

Steve Johnson

One of those rare books that reveals a vast and fascinating system behind something you've taken entirely for granted. . . . Brilliant.

Entertainment Weekly

An authoritative, expertly reported account of this increasingly global business, with the smart elegance of a dinner at Nobu.

Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing first book, Philadelphia-based journalist Issenberg roams the globe in search of sushi and takes the reader on a cultural, historical and economic journey through the raw-fish trade that reads less like economics and more like an entertaining culinary travelogue. In the years since the end of WWII, the practical protein-and-rice delicacy once unknown outside Japan has become so commonplace that the elements of its trade affect a far-flung global network of fanatics, chefs, tuna ranchers and pirates. While the West reached out for things Japanese, from management techniques to Walkmans, the growth of the market for quality fish, especially maguro, the bluefin tuna beloved by sushi eaters everywhere, paralleled Japan's rise from postwar ruin to 1980s economic powerhouse and into its burst-bubble present. Issenberg follows every possible strand in this worldwide web of history, economics and cuisine-an approach that keeps the book lively with colorful places and characters, from the Tokyo fish market to the boats of North Atlantic fishermen, from tuna ranches off the coast of Australia to the sushi bars in Austin, Tex. He weaves the history of the art and cuisine of sushi throughout, and his smart, lively voice makes the most arcane information fascinating. (May) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

This is one of those rare books that reveals a vast and fascinating system behind something you've entirely taken for granted. The Sushi Economy is not just a book about our growing appetite for raw fish -- it's a brilliant look at globalization in practice. (Steven Johnson, bestselling author of The Ghost Map and Everything Bad is Good for You)

What People Are Saying

Sasha Issenberg has produced an exquisite specimen of culinary anthropology--and literary journalism and political economy. He reveals fascinating wrinkles in the global economy with wit and color. (Franklin Foer, bestselling author of How Soccer Explains the World)

What People Are Saying

Sasha Issenberg's The Sushi Economy is a perfectly timed book about two important topics. Like a good piece of sushi, it's simple, complex, and full of delicious surprises. (Mark Bittman, author of The Best Recipes in the World and How to Cook Everything)

What People Are Saying

Everywhere I travel in the world there seems to be a sushi bar awaiting me. Now, for the first time, I understand the culinary phenomenon with informed eyes and stomach. Sasha Issenberg's The Sushi Economy is a riveting and witty inquiry into the raw fish explosion. As a non-fiction stylist, he's first-rate. A must read! (Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Tulane University, bestselling author of The Great Deluge)

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents