Kudzu abounds across the American South.
Above all, Devoured is an ode to the earth around us--a quest for meaning in today\'s imperiled world..
It is a deeply reported exploration of the landscapes That host the many species we fight to control.
Devoured is a poignant narrative of belonging, racial ambiguity, outsiders and insiders, and the path from universal acceptance to undesirability.
Weaving careful research with personal stories, Horn-muller investigates how Kudzu morphed from a miraculous agricultural solution to the monstrous archetypal foe of the southern landscape.
From architecture teams experimenting with it as a sustainable building material, to clinical applications treating binge-drinking, to chefs harvesting it as a wild edible, environmental journalist Ayurella Horn-muller spotlights how kudzu\'s notorious reputation in America is gradually being cast aside in favor of its promise.
Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South detangles the complicated Story of the South\'s fickle relationship with kudzu, chronicling the ways the boundless weed has evolved over centuries, and dissecting what climate change could mean for its future across the United States.
In its roots, a network of people scattered across the country see a chance at redemption--and an opportunity to rewrite a fragment of troubled history.
But for a select few, it has begun to signify something else entirely.
To many, the plant\'s enduring legacy has been its villainous role as the Vine That ate the South.
Introduced in the United States in the 1800s as a solution for soil erosion, this invasive Vine with Eastern Asian origins came to be known as a pernicious invader capable of smothering everything in its path.
Kudzu abounds across the American South
