The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen

I grew up in New Orleans enthralled by tales of Sam Zemurray, the banana peddler who built United Fruit. “This is a rollicking but brilliantly researched book about one of the most fascinating characters of the twentieth century. “This biography of the complex and often contradictory figure of Zemurray is Cohen's most engaging and entertaining book to date.” - Chicago Tribune Printers Row Journal “Lively and entertaining.” - The Boston Globe “Rich Cohen books constitute a genre unto themselves: pungent, breezy, vividly written psychodramas.” - The New York Times Book Review Rich Cohen's brilliant historical profile The Fish That Ate the Whale unveils Zemurray as a hidden power broker, driven by an indomitable will to succeed. From hustling on the docks of New Orleans to overthrowing Central American governments and precipitating the bloody thirty-six-year Guatemalan civil war, the Banana Man lived a monumental and sometimes dastardly life. Starting with nothing but a cart of freckled bananas, he built a sprawling empire of banana cowboys, mercenary soldiers, Honduran peasants, CIA agents, and American statesmen. Zemurray lived one of the great untold stories of the last hundred years. Working his way up from a roadside fruit peddler to conquering the United Fruit Company, Zemurray became a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof that America is the land of opportunity, but also a classic example of the corporate pirate who treats foreign nations as the backdrop for his adventures. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. The fascinating untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary

Named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Times-Picayune

The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen