The Absinthe Forger (e-book) (used book) | Evan Rail | bookbook.eu

Description

Astonishing true crime: The Absinthe Forger explores the nature of obsession and the nurture of ego through the story of a dashing, talented, and utterly amoral eccentric who blew up the black market for absinthe, a spirit once known as "liquid opium."

Think The Feather Thief but for spirits.

Absinthe, a elixir made of alcohol and herbs, is a booming business. From France to Japan, new absinthe distilleries are opening every year, with global trade expected to reach $44.3 billion by 2026. Yet it is still an underground culture, associated with mystery, romance, and bohemian lifestyles, in keeping with its popularity among the writers, artists, and other ne'er-do-wells of nineteenth-century France. Celebrated absinthe drinkers include Van Gogh, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Wilde, Proust, Poe, and Byron, among many others. First produced in 1792, the spirit, known as "the green fairy," was banned worldwide by 1914 before the bans were gradually overturned beginning in 2007. Thus, on the black market, bottles that were produced before the ban are worth solid gold.

Enter The Absintheur, a deadly-charismatic European art student whose real name we can't yet divulge. Inveigling his way into the private Facebook groups and wealthy Italian palazzos where the secret modern absinthe demimonde converges, he charmed some of the best minds (and palates) in the beverage world into thinking that he was selling them precious vintage pre-ban bottles, for years. How did he get away with it? The person who blew his cover, New York Times reporter Evan Rail, is the person who wrote this book.

The Absinthe Forger pieces together The Absintheur's subterfuge, motivation, and hidden life story with the help of the absinthe connoisseurs who eventually proved his fraud while Evan reported on it. It shows how absinthe can transform a person -- and even connect drinkers with a deeper, often hidden sense of self. It relates the romantic and illicit history of absinthe, from its birth in Switzerland through its coming of age in France, and on to the spirit's modern revival starting in the 1990s. Evan digs deep into the modern absinthe underground, whose members are still frantic to find the last remaining bottles of pre-ban absinthe, and he visits modern producers of the spirit, who have, in a generation, changed in status from daring-criminal bootleggers to sought-after celebrities. Ripe for a Netflix documentary, The Absinthe Forger is a compellingly bizarre crime drama that will make you never look at wormwood in the same way again.