Now I know why this book received so many awards.

I would have a hard time summarising all the content of the book. Take capitalism at its fringe, anthropology, ecology and mix everything.

Starting from an interest in matsutake, the author tracks its roots in Japan, China, Finland or the US, summarising her findings in the different domains and how each interact with the others.

I still haven’t processed or formalised what I will remember from this book.

The fact that matsutakes grow where the forest has been destroyed / over-exploited etc and dies when the forest grows back. And that the forest needs to be disturbed, a lot for matsutake to thrive is a big one.

That, even though matsutake markets are very capitalist in nature, the way matsutake are collected and processes up to a certain point is not, and that holds true in the different continents in which Anna Tsing investigated.

Even the definition of the matsutake organism itself, both the different species definition, to what makes an organism, mixing different species, mixing genes in a very specific way, the relationship of the mushroom with pines, oaks or canesticks is a very interesting one. Oh, and the discussion on the different scientific approaches (US vs Japanese, most notably) being at the moment inreconciliable because based on different root assumption as to what is the goal, hence producing opposite conclusions is also extremely interesing.

Anyway, read this book. It will not be what you expect.

(And, don’t buy the french translation. I had to fight my way through the book due to it.)