The Beauty of the Death Cap by Catherine Kover Tina Dousteyssier-Khoze

The Beauty of the Death Cap by Catherine Kover Tina Dousteyssier-Khoze

Nikonor is an eccentric and scholarly snob, a mycomaniac who has just made it to the Ch teau de la Charlanne where he spent his childhood in the company of his twin sister, Anastasie. After all these years, it is not quite clear what brings him back to la Charlanne--an isolated and somewhat derelict castle located in the heart of the French countryside--but he is keen to share various memories with the reader in order to 'set the record straight', while he delivers his opinions on literature, cheeses, and, especially, mushrooms.

Winner of both a Prix Andr Dubreuil and a Prix Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco upon its original publication in France, The Beauty of the Death Cap is a darkly comic and sinister novel, a work that, page by page, becomes ever more disturbing, as we try to discover who Nikonor really is.

Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze is Reader in French at Durham University. She specializes in (19th-century) French literature and French film. She is also the author of a début novel, La logique de l'amanite (Grasset, 2015).