Way Through The Woods, Long Litt Woon
When Long Litt Woon loses her husband of 32 years to an unexpected death, she is utterly bereft. An immigrant in his country, in losing the love of her life she has also lost her compass and her passport to society. For a time, she is stuck, aimless, disoriented. It is only when she wanders off deep into the woods with mushroom hunters and is taught there how to see clearly what is all around her, and learn how to make distinctions, take educated risks, and hear all the different melodies in Nature’s chorus, that she returns to life and to living. And it is mushrooms which guide her back. In this book, she describes how they saved her, and how they might save you.
A review by Calyx at Suffolk Libraries
“Grief grinds slowly; it devours all the time it needs.”
The Way Through the Woods by anthropologist and certified mushroom expert Long Litt Woon, tells a symbiotic tale of the process of grief and one of the most inscrutable organisms on Earth: the fungus
Switching between the author’s reflections on the sudden loss of husband, Eiolf, and her more practical explorations into the fascinating world of fungi, this book is intelligently written and deeply observational. Filled to the brim with eccentric mushroom-obsessed people, delightful accounts of fungi and emotional prose, The Way Through the Woods emphasises the importance of the connections between fauna, flora and funga.
About the author
Long Litt Woon is a Taiping-born anthropologist and certified mushroom expert who lives in Oslo, Norway.
Described by its author as ‘an outer journey, my discovery of the kingdom of fungi, but also an inner journey into the landscape of grief’, The Way through the Woods was originally published in Norwegian but has since been translated into more than a dozen languages and is critically acclaimed world-wide.
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A window to wildlife - discover local landscapes with Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Are you feeling inspired by Way Through The Woods? Well, why not discover some of the best woodland landscapes Suffolk has to offer!
