The Path Through the Forest. About Mushrooms and Grief

Anthropologist Long Litt Woon, a native of Malaysia living and working in Norway, combines in this book a tale of her immersion in the world of mushrooms and a poignant confession of a woman who lost her husband and had to learn to live alone. Both parts of the text are autobiographical: the experience of grief and the search for shelter in a suddenly empty world led Long to the forest, prompting her to ask questions about what attracts people to mushrooms, how relationships between the two realms of nature are structured, what the laws of "quiet hunting" are, what pleasures it promises and what dangers it conceals. The decision to go mushroom picking ultimately led the author to acquire a new competence - Long is now a member of the Norwegian Mycological Society - and culminated in a book in which surprisingly organic coexist is a lush description of forest walks, recipes for mushroom dishes, and deep reflections on the life of a modern person searching for their place between civilization and nature.