The coconut has developed a bit of a faddish following in the West, and no one would be more delighted by its popularity than August Engelhardt, a sun-worshipping German nudist and history's most radical cocovore. From 1902 to 1919, Engelhardt lived on a beautiful South Pacific island, eating nothing but the fruit of Cocos nucifera, which he believed was the panacea for all mankind's woes. Except that a coconut mono-diet proved to be a terrible idea.
Engelhardt was resurrected from near-oblivion by Swiss writer Christian Kracht's 2012 novel, Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas, which fictionalizes the German cocovore's bizarre and poignant story. The English translation was published this year.
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