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  • The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town by Mark Kurlansky book cover
  • The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town by Mark Kurlansky book cover
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The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town

by Mark Kurlansky

A fishing port at a turning point

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Financial Times calls it “an engrossing multi-layered portrait”

    The book is described as an engrossing portrait of a fishing community and an environmental plea.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A fishing port at a turning point

Gloucester’s identity is closely tied to commercial fishing, and this book uses the Massachusetts port to examine pressures facing that livelihood, including overfishing, climate change, and pollution. Mark Kurlansky places the community’s present alongside its history, bringing local anecdotes, people, and recipes into a broader account of coastal life. The subject reaches beyond one town: Gloucester serves as a lens on the challenges confronting fishing communities elsewhere, while the book considers whether that way of life can endure.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in New England history and local communities.
  • Readers curious about commercial fishing and the environmental pressures on coastal towns.
  • Readers who enjoy nonfiction combining history, anecdotes, and recipes.

Themes

Commercial fishing and community identityNew England local historyOverfishing, climate change, and pollutionThe future of coastal livelihoods

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"A marvelous, compelling tale"(Rocky Mountain News) from the New York Times bestselling author of Salt and Cod.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, America's oldest fishing port, is defined by the culture of commercial fishing. But the threat of over-fishing, combined with climate change and pollution, is endangering a way of life, not only in Gloucester but in coastal cities all over the world. And yet, according to Kurlansky, it doesn't have to be this way.

Engagingly written and filled with rich history, delicious anecdotes, colorful characters, and local recipes, The Last Fish Tale is Kurlansky's most urgent story, "an engrossing multi-layered portrait of a fishing community that can be read for pure pleasure as well as being a campaigning plea for the environment" (Financial Times).
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