Vegetables

It's a tall order to discuss ten vegetables in ten brief chapters with panache, history, and cultural and scientific insight. Readers will be delighted that Bloch-Dano (Madame Proust: A Biography) delivers with this thoroughly refreshing view of ten veggies that everyone will recognize from the produce aisle of the grocery store. The book begins with a discussion of taste and a section on food and eating—both of which lay the groundwork for the following chapters on the individual vegetables. The book was inspired by a friend of Bloch-Dano, who challenged the author to produce "biographies" for multiple vegetables. These short pieces were then presented to the participants of a program that taught individuals how to garden. That friend's challenge was more than met by these charming sketches, which, through Fagan's translation, are now available for all English speakers to enjoy.