Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Paperback / softback Book

The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Paperback / softback

Paperback / softback

In Stock - usually despatched within 24 hours

Description

What a rare mushroom can teach us about sustaining life on a fragile planetMatsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world—and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere.

Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places.

It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices.

In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made? A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism.

Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more.

These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction. By investigating one of the world's most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

Information

Other Formats

Save 12%

£15.99

£14.05

In Stock - usually despatched within 24 hours
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information