FEASTING WILD

“La Cerva's beautifully written narrative is as tantalizing as it is edifying.” (starred review)

“Feasting Wild is indeed a feast—a memorable, genre-defying work that blends anthropology and adventure, love and loss.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, New York Times-bestselling author of The Sixth Extinction “It is rare these days to find a food book with a truly original take on food. Feasting Wild gives you a great deal to think about and at the same time is a pleasure to read.” —Mark Kurlansky, New York Times bestselling author of Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate and Salt: A World History “Gina Rae La Cerva is a modern-day hunter-gatherer, scouring the planet to bring us delicious stories and lessons about our world. Her writing is original and thought-provoking, and even though it's not always palatable how we've transformed our native flora and fauna, her adventurous storytelling is endlessly satisfying.” —Daniel Stone, author of The Food Explorer “This is the food book I've always wanted to read—a witty, illuminating, and beautifully written travelogue that rightly centers the historical role of women and the importance of Indigenous knowledge. Throw away the trite faux-wisdom of dietitians and gorge yourself instead on the charming platter that Gina Rae La Cerva has served up.” —Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes “A curious, passionate, and beautifully poetic book. La Cerva uncovers something essential about our enduring desire for wildness in a world where it is rapidly vanishing.” —James Prosek, artist and author of Trout: An Illustrated History “Gina Rae La Cerva's engrossing book celebrates wild-harvested food but also mourns it, showing how plentiful staples have dwindled time and again to overexploited luxuries. Mixing memoir, travelogue, and environmental history, Feasting Wild is a lyrical and lucid exploration of hunger and fulfillment, richly detailed and beautifully told.” —Thor Hanson, author of Buzz and The Triumph of Seeds “[La Cerva's] writing pulls together personal narrative and research in a way that is not only accessible, but intensely revealing, taking us back through time, across oceans and land, and impressing upon us all that is lost when we forgo or commodify wildness.” —Madison Cruz, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI

NL: Arbeiderspers (pre-empt); Japan: Aki Shobo;

“A delightful culinary travel book.”

“La Cerva reveals the landscape in brightly lit detail and gives generously of herself, and the result makes for a suitably satisfying feast.”

“witty, illuminating, and inclusive” Read more...

"La Cerva argues that this shift in perception stems from the onslaught of 'settler-colonialism,' which used the dichotomy of wild versus tame to 'justify violent appetites and the domination of unfamiliar cultures and places.' Within a few centuries, she adds, 'the world [had] traded wild edibles at home for exotic domesticates from abroad.'"