Welcome to Litsy!

I was in exactly the right mood for dark, twisted humour in the voice of a fussy, delusional mushroom fanatic in the Auvergne region of France. Nikonor is tight lipped around people, but in his journal he eventually reveals all. The tale is delightfully outrageous and macabre. Translation from French by Tina Kover. #womenintranslationmonth

I must absolutely be in full possession of my faculties—that is one of the reasons why I eat so many Portuguese sardines (sardines are excellent for mental acuteness, you know).

(Internet photo)

(I confess a weakness for the fly-catchers of the Russian illustrator Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin [1876-1942] who never failed to include a multitude of little white-dotted red caps in his otherwise dense, dark and frightening forests)

[internet image]

I was 3 and a half years old. Already highly advanced for my age, I understood even the finer points of mushroom-hunting perfectly, thanks to an illustrated book (Le Petit Mycologue, 1923 edition) presented to me by my father for my second birthday.

(Image is of a mushroom guide for kids that I read a few years ago)