The Way through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning

It seems appropriate to start off this year's postings with a salute to Lit Woon Long (author) and Barbara J. Haveland (translator) for my New Year's gift of the lovely The Way through the Woods:  On Mushrooms and Mourning.  What a way to start off 2022! 

In this little gem of a book the author embraces the loss of her husband, Eiolf Olson, with the help of the mushroom trail. 

All I had to do was follow the mushroom trail, even though I still didn't know where it would lead...Mushrooms provided me with a new perspective on things, not least when it came to making fresh sense of life.

But the book is more than an anthropologist's account of her journey of healing in the Norwegian forests.  It is also recipes and tips, thoughts, mushroom identification, mushroom history, trivia, fun facts, and quirky antidotes.  It is uplifting and inspirational!

 

 

Now published in 16 countries, The Way Through the Woods recounts the author’s journey through life without her beloved husband and celebrates her achievement of being certified by the Norwegian Mycological Society as a mushroom expert.   

Along the way, we readers are treated to such delights as an entire chapter on smells “because the aroma of a mushroom is as distinct as a fingerprint. You can’t tell from farmed or store-bought varieties, but wild mushrooms have discernible aromas and concentrating on this was like being woken up from a deep coma.”

Thank you, Lit Woon Long, for such an enchanting path that woke me up and tenderly drew me into the new year!