The Mushroom Man [Hardcover]

Sophie Powell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2003

Six-year-old Lily Newman accompanies her mother, Charlotte, on a late-summer visit to her Aunt Beth's sheep farm in the middle of wild Welsh countryside. Beth, whom Charlotte considers to have greatly disappointed their parents by marrying a humble carpenter, now lives with her son and triplet daughters, her husband having died two years earlier.

While staying on the farm, Lily becomes fixated with a fairy tale her cousins make up about a Mushroom Man and vanishes one morning into the nearby forest. The adults suspect an abductor, while the children wonder if, indeed, their story about the Mushroom Man and his invisible-making powers has come true. As each group pursues their own solutions, relationships are strained and carefully constructed facades come crumbling down.

With sparkling prose, The Mushroom Man explores the fine border between reality and myth, and introduces Sophie Powell as a wry and sophisticated new talent in fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Powell makes a charming debut with this touching comedy that explores childhood fantasies as well as messy adult truths about family relationships. Beth, a free-spirited widow with a teenage son and 11-year-old identical triplet daughters, longs to have her London sister, Charlotte, come to her Welsh farmhouse with her six-year-old daughter, Lily. One summer, the stuffy, prim Charlotte reluctantly agrees, warning Lily not to share towels or cutlery with her wild cousins ("very different people who live very differently from us"). As soon as she leaves home, her husband, Richard, pursues his dalliance with Lily's nanny. Meanwhile, much to Charlotte's consternation, Lily becomes enchanted by her triplet cousins, especially when one of them concocts a magical story about a Mushroom Man who protects fairies from the rain with his special mushroom umbrellas. When Lily disappears in the forest, the grownups panic, Charlotte says, "I told you so" and the children busily devise a plan to find their cousin. Powell contrasts the adults' frightened response (they call on policemen and search dogs) with the children's more whimsical one (they organize an army of their playmates to march into the forest shouting, "We believe in fairies"). Powell neatly juggles many elements here: sibling rivalry, a marriage gone sour, widowhood. Her wry, playful prose ("Charlotte is coming to visit Beth because she has always had a sense of duty, because she wants to display her sense of duty, and because she thinks Beth's children could do with seeing someone with a sense of duty"), assured voice and unerring eye for detail make her one to watch.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Everyone's fed up with Charlotte's relentless uptightness. Her wealthy London husband is having a crude affair with Pavlova, their au pair. Her sister, Beth, a widowed painter living in Wales with her teenage son and somewhat younger triplet daughters, is hurt by Charlotte's coldness and contempt for her bohemian country ways. And Charlotte's only child, pretty six-year-old Lily, has had it with her strict mother's refusal to let her have any fun. Driven by a sense of superiority, which she calls duty, Charlotte finally deigns to bring Lily to visit Beth and her family. Her dreamy little daughter is instantly captivated by the beauty of the countryside, and by her imaginative cousins, one of whom tells her a story about the Mushroom Man, an invisible, tree-dwelling hermit and dear friend of the fairies. Lily takes off to find him and vanishes from sight, sending everyone into a panic. First-time novelist Powell writes with remarkable assurance and dazzle as she spins this dew-bright tale of long-brewing adult unhappiness magically dispelled by the intuition and valor of smart and spirited children. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Printing edition (February 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399149635
• ISBN-13: 978-0399149634
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,790,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected delight!, February 11, 2003

By 

trang le (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mushroom Man (Hardcover)

Wow. Once again: wow! Her prose is like a roller coaster ride, extremely fun, making scenes and life spin so fast, it's like nothing you've ever experienced before. I was impressed with how tight this whole thing is--this being a first novel and all. After I read this book, I did a little research on the author and found out that she was only 22 when she published this book!

It's an extremely well-written story full of innocent candor and dark sexual irony. It does not unnecessarily dwell on things. Sophie Powell avoids every single pretentious mistake so commonly seen in other writers' first books.

I am sure even greater works will most defiantely be penned by Powell. This work is also great. It's absolutely great! I'm not very good at reviews, and usually don't write them, but after reading this book, I just had to write one. This is one of those books that makes you grab someone and tell them that they ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm so glad I came across this book., February 10, 2003

By 

madamejoanna24 (New Orleans, LS, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mushroom Man (Hardcover)

I always do searchs on this page for new books by first time novelists. It's a good way to keep on top of who's who in the next coming years. I would definately have to say that Sophie Powell is going to be up there.

The title is a little weird, even a little bland, and misleading. Because I thought this was a children's book. After three words, i was like no this isn't. And is it a book for adults or what!

The language is so fresh. It just flows through your ears as delicately as music. I really think this book is an absolute most definate you-can't-ignore-this-rec must read.

Once again. Amazing. This is the type of book you read once, then again. Then again and again.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powell's words are like whimsical fairies in your head, February 15, 2003

By 

"jeanlamour77" (Providence, RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mushroom Man (Hardcover)

I can't begin to express who wonderfully writtin this book is. Powell's writing is so amazingly different from the norm. It is extremely experimental, and yet very very accessible. Powell has done the impossible: she has created something completely new it the English language, and at the same time, made so very accessible for every and anyone (literary minded or not).

This is book is a good start to bring good literature back to the masses.