The Absinthe Forger

Description

Step into the exclusive world of ‘the green fairy’ in this astonishing true crime story about an eccentric con man who blew up the black market with counterfeit absinthe.

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. 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.

Enter a bon vivant who inveigles his way into the private Facebook groups where the modern absinthe demimonde converges and charms some of the best minds (and palates) in the beverage world into thinking that he was selling them precious vintage pre-ban bottles.  How did he get away with it? 

The Absinthe Forger pieces together the forger’s subterfuge and motivation. 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 2000s.

Rail 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.“Evan Rail is one of the world’s most celebrated absinthe raconteurs. The study of pre-ban absinthe is his métier, and in the case of his forthcoming book, The Absinthe Forger, Evan reveals this swindle as only the best gumshoes can: by knowing their quarry from the inside out.” – Warren Bobrow, absintheur/cannabis alchemist

“I’ve been reading Evan Rail’s dispatches from Central Europe for years. He possesses a wide-ranging intellect, deep knowledge of the region and a storyteller’s gift for unrolling a complicated tale in a way that keeps the reader hanging on every word. He also knows more than a few things about spirits — I look to him to keep me in the know about Europe’s fast-changing distilling culture. To me, the idea of an Evan Rail book on absinthe — and an absinthe forger, at that — is a slam dunk. It’s a great story, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity for Evan to relate a rich and compelling history about a still- mysterious spirit.” – Clay Risen, NYT staff writer and author of Bourbon: The Story of Kentucky Whiskey

“Evan Rail is a most exotic rarity in the overpopulated world of food, drink, and travel writers: an unimpeachable authority on his subject who is also a consummate raconteur. A natural-born obsessive (I’ve never known a more contagiously joyous one), Rail has a nose for story equaled only by his nose for strong spirits — and with this tale, hoo boy, he’s found both in spades. I’d read pretty much anything under his byline, but this is clearly the book he was born to write. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.” – David McAninch, author of Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France’s Last Best PlaceAn award-winning journalist, Evan Rail is the author of more than 100 articles about European travel and food & drink in The New York Times. A monthly columnist at VinePair, the most popular drinks publication among millennial drinkers, he covers global drinks culture at Free Pour with Evan Rail, one of three finalists for “Best Beverage-Focused Column” in the 2021 International Association of Culinary Professionals Awards. His articles on food & drink have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Saveur, BeerAdvocate, Smithsonian Travel, and National Geographic Travel, among other venues.

His writing has been included in several anthologies, including Best Food Writing, Travelers’ Tales, and The New York Times Book of Wine. He has contributed to several guidebook series, including Fodor’s and *Wallpaper, and wrote chapter introductions and brewery profiles for Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, and Italy in Lonely Planet’s Global Beer Tour (2017). He is the author of four Kindle Singles, including Why Beer Matters, which sold 3,000 copies on its launch weekend, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller.

Evan has appeared on several television programs, most notably showing Anthony Bourdain around the world of Czech food and drink on his television show No Reservations and drinking Czech beer during his interview with Phil Black on CNN. He has explained what it is like to bathe in beer on the Discovery Channel’s How Stuff Works and been quoted on where to drink in Prague in USA Today. Additional interviews with Evan have appeared on radio stations around the world, including on the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Prague, Hungarian National Radio, and other programs. He narrated the audiobook editions of his first three Kindle Singles for Audible.com, and regularly records podcasts for Good Beer Hunting, where he works as international editor.

Evan’s poems and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, Agni, Metre, Zyzzyva, and other journals. His poetry chapbook, Tsunami, was published in Ireland shortly before the tsunami of 2004. It was called “a poised debut… [a] marriage of gusto and attentiveness” by the TLS.US

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