Kenneth Cook

Famed marine researcher and illustrator Richard Ellis brings us a work of scientific achievement that will forever change the way we think about fish, fishing, and the dangers inherent in the seafood we eat. The bluefin tuna is one of the world's biggest, fastest, and most highly evolved marine animals, as well as one of its most popular delicacies. Now, however, it hovers on the brink of extinction. Here Ellis explains how a fish that was once able to thrive has become a commodity--and how the natural world and the global economy converge on our plates. With updated information on mercury levels in tuna, this is at once an astounding ode to one of nature's greatest marvels and a serious examination of a creature and world at risk.From the Trade Paperback edition.

"New to The Yabba?" It was the inevitable question asked of a stranger to the Australian outback town of Bundanyabba. Then would follow round after round of drinks and a recital of The Yabba's virtues. You could rob your host, sleep with his wife or rape his daughters and Bundanyabba would welcome you. But refuse a drink or despise The Yabba and you were an outcast. John Grant came from Sydney. He was serving his mandatory time as a school-teacher in the outback. Bundanyabba was the essence of what he hated most about the region: its meaningless generosity and utter shallowness; its stifling hospitality and complete callousness; its scorching, relentless, horrible heat. And yet John, who was on his way to see his girl in Sydney, was stuck there — flat broke, dependent on these friendly. loathsome people. He gambled with them, drank with them, shot with them. He was trapped in a nightmare like the man cursed to dream of the Devil and wake in fright. Afterwards he realized it was enough to be it awake, to be alive. In spare, telling prose, Kenneth Cook creates a terrifying picture of the degradation to which men can sink and of the second chance given to one man to come back to life. Wake in Fright is a remarkable achievement in the genre of the taut novel of suspense.