The Mushroom at the End of the World

On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

*One of Times Higher Education’s Best Books of 2015*
*One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 in Business and Economics*
*One of Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 in Science*

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world — and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the Northern Hemisphere. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing's account of these sought-after fungi offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: What manages to live in the ruins we have made?

The Mushroom at the End of the World explores the unexpected corners of matsutake commerce, where we encounter Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human devastation.

The Mushroom at the End of the World delves into the relationship between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.

‘A poetic and remarkably fertile exploration of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment.' — Pankaj Mishra, The Guardian

'Through close, indeed loving, attention to a certain fascinating mushroom, the matsutake, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing discusses how the whole immense crisis of ecology came about and why it continues. In a situation where urgency and enormity can overwhelm the mind, she gives us a real way to think about it.' — Ursula K. Le Guin

ISBN: 9780691220550 | Published: 15 August 2021 | Trade paperback | 352 pages