Houbařka – Hanišová Viktorie (2020)

What does mycelium hide? Viktorie Hanišová debuted in 2015 with the enthusiastically received novel Anežka about the complicated relationship between a mother and her adoptive daughter, about hidden racism and stereotypes. Also in the background of the new story lies a family secret that the heroine carries from her childhood and tries to forget. But can one truly escape what has already happened? Sára lives in an old cottage in Šumava and makes a living by foraging for mushrooms. Every morning, she puts on her old hiking boots, grabs a basket with a cloth, strokes a sharp knife in her pocket, and sets off. For seven years, she has walked the same route, collecting mushrooms in the same places from spring to autumn and selling them for a few hundred. As a voluntary hermit, she does not befriend anyone and does not leave Pošumaví. Only occasionally does she travel to Plzeň to convince her psychiatrist of her balanced mental state. Therefore, the news of her mother's death does not change Sára's life much. However, what seems like a triviality on the surface is tumultuously thriving beneath it.