Egg

An unconventional history of the world’s largest cellular workhorse, from chickens to penguins, art to egg crimes and more

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Lizzie Stark takes readers on a witty, revealing and delightful journey through the natural and cultural history of the egg, exploring its deep symbolism, innumerable uses and metabolic importance in twelve dazzling specimens. From Mali to Finland, Stark looks at cultures that find the world’s origins in an egg. Decorated by Ukrainians, an oracle for Greeks, the impetus behind gang wars and flown into space, the egg—whether of chickens, murres or ostriches—has taken on mythic proportions, all the while serving as a humble ingredient in fancy dishes. Stark even writes Jacques Pépin’s biography through the lens of the egg dishes he served. Egg is also about Stark’s fascination with this delicate ovoid—both her myriad attempts to create a perfect omelette and her fraught relationship to the ova in her body. Filled with colourful characters and fascinating morsels, Egg is a playful, informative and surprising history that guarantees you’ll never take the egg for granted again.