The Way Through the Woods, Litt Woon Long
The Way Through the Woods, Litt Woon Long
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The Way Through the Woods
On Mushrooms and Mourning

Author: Litt Woon Long, Barbara J. Haveland

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 7 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/02/2019


Synopsis

A grieving widow discovers a most unexpected form of healing—hunting for mushrooms.

“Moving . . .  Long tells the story of finding hope after despair lightly and artfully, with self-effacement and so much gentle good nature.”—The New York Times

Long Litt Woon met Eiolf a month after arriving in Norway from Malaysia as an exchange student. They fell in love, married, and settled into domestic bliss. Then Eiolf’s unexpected death at fifty-four left Woon struggling to imagine a life without the man who had been her partner and anchor for thirty-two years. Adrift in grief, she signed up for a beginner’s course on mushrooming—a course the two of them had planned to take together—and found, to her surprise, that the pursuit of mushrooms rekindled her zest for life.

The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms—resilient, adaptable, and essential to nature’s cycle of death and rebirth. From idyllic Norwegian forests and urban flower beds to the sandy beaches of Corsica and New York’s Central Park, Woon uncovers an abundance of surprises often hidden in plain sight: salmon-pink Bloody Milk Caps, which ooze red liquid when cut; delectable morels, prized for their earthy yet delicate flavor; and bioluminescent mushrooms that light up the forest at night.

Along the way, she discovers the warm fellowship of other mushroom obsessives, and finds that giving her full attention to the natural world transforms her, opening a way for her to survive Eiolf’s death, to see herself anew, and to reengage with life.

Praise for The Way Through the Woods

“In her search for new meaning in life after the death of her husband, Long Litt Woon undertook the study of mushrooms. What she found in the woods, and expresses with such tender joy in this heartfelt memoir, was nothing less than salvation.”—Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia and Microbia

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emilio on May 21, 2020

Boschi di Norvegia Un testo recente giunto dal Nord e scritto da un'autrice di origine malese. Il sottotitolo è già assai significativo : "Una storia di lutto, funghi e rinascita". L'originalità non manca ; la dimensione autobiografica è evidente. L'improvviso decesso del marito. "Di tutte le emozioni c......more

Goodreads review by Alice on February 16, 2024

Read and enjoyed! Really liked learning about the different mushrooms and the mushroom picking community. The theme of grief is also very interesting, but I wish the mushrooms and grief parts were slightly more weaved together. Very well worth the read though!......more

Goodreads review by Federica on June 15, 2022

Tra scienza e sentimento La Via del Bosco si può leggere come se fosse un trattato di micologia, arricchito dalle note intime dell’autrice Long Litt Woon, o come un libro di memorie in cui il mondo dei funghi si mescola con un susseguirsi di incontri e ricordi. Ma soprattutto il libro è una lettura i......more

Goodreads review by Mary on July 20, 2019

I’m strangely drawn to a weird niche category of books where the author takes up a particular—and often unusual—hobby to deal with grief after the loss of a loved one. Helen Macdonald’s H is For Hawk falls into this category, as does Katie Arnold’s more recent book about ultrarunning, Running Home.......more


Quotes

“Moving and unexpectedly funny . . . Long tells the story of finding hope after despair lightly and artfully, with self-effacement and so much gentle good nature that we forgot how sad she (and we) are. . . . Seeing Long’s capacity for wonder and even contentment in the midst of her sadness feels like seeing tiny shoots of grass peeking from the ash in a landscape stripped bare by fire. Her memoir . . . intersperses the story of her mushroom education with details of her emotional journey, each informing the other. She is a fine anthropologist of both. . . . At its center, this book poses a familiar, awful existential question. How do you go on living when the person you loved so much—perhaps the person you loved best in the world—is gone? Everyone must find her own answer. Long’s is as good as any.”The New York Times

“Like mushrooms themselves, The Way Through the Woods is surprising, comforting, and completely engrossing. Woon takes us foraging not just through the fascinating world of fungi but also through her personal grief. Like Sound of a Wild Snail Eating and H is for Hawk, her gorgeous, intimate encounter with unfamiliar species teaches us that observing nature carefully is both inspiring and healing.”—Juli Berwald, author of Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone

The Way Through the Woods is a personal view of the world of mushrooming though the eyes of an anthropologist who took up mushrooming to move forward through grief after the sudden death of her husband. It was great to see how Norway mushrooming culture was similar and different from that of the United States culture, while cheering for the author as she struggled to accept and embrace her new life. Anyone interested in these subjects will enjoy this book as much as I did.”—“Wildman” Steve Brill, America’s Go-to Guy for Foraging