The Fish That Ate the Whale

The Life and Times of America's Banana King

By: Rich Cohen

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

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

The fascinating untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary

When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. 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. 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.

Zemurray lived one of the great untold stories of the last hundred years. 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. 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. 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.

©2012 Rich Cohen (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“This is a rollicking but brilliantly researched book about one of the most fascinating characters of the twentieth century. I grew up in New Orleans enthralled by tales of Sam Zemurray, the banana peddler who built United Fruit. This book recounts, with delightful verve, his military and diplomatic maneuvers in Central America and his colorful life and business practices.”—Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of Steve Jobs

“Cohen ... gives us the fascinating tale of ‘Sam the Banana Man,' a poor Russian Jew who emigrated to Alabama as a teenager and ended up controlling much of Central America . . . Rich Cohen books constitute a genre unto themselves: pungent, breezy, vividly written psychodramas about rough-edged, tough-minded Jewish machers who vanquish their rivals, and sometimes change the world in the process. Within this specialized context, Cohen's Zemurray biography admirably fills the bill.”—Mark Lewis, The New York Times Book Review

“Absorbing, nimble and unapologetically affectionate . . . Mr. Cohen is a wonderfully visceral storyteller . . . it's a magnificent, crazy story, engagingly told.”—Aaron Gell, New York Observer

Fascinating!

Everything! Don’t judge a book by its cover! Who would of thoughts bananas gangsters existed!

The story telling, the writing, Sam's early amd midlife in the banana industry.

I liked the speaker and his pacing. Well executed. I disliked that the story had to come to an end.

Really intriguing story

Very engaging + inspiring, yet a good cautionary tale. Pretty balanced take about a nuanced American icon

Phenomenal

Wonderfully written. A phenomenal business biography on par with Chernow’s Titan and Caro’s Power Broker.

What a life?!

A fascinating tale from a bygone era. Sam Zemurray led a compete life - from the jungles of the isthmus in Central America to the elite of corporate America intersecting w the apex of government.

A worthwhile story indeed.

The More You Know...

I love a great biography...I love a well researched microhistory. This book is both and it tells of an America built on grit, and, well unbridled capitalism. Who knew that bananas were so exciting?!

Excellent history

I highly recommend this read. Leading the banana story and the banana man’s story is well worth the listen.