'Little Things' by Benoît Coquil: the novel that explores the cultural impact of the magic mushroom

The novel Cositas , by Benoît Coquil , nominated for the 2023 Prix Femina des Lycéens , began to take shape in 2019 when the French writer bought a t-shirt in the large market of Oaxaca (Mexico) with the face of the shaman María Sabina printed on it, who in the last century used hallucinogenic mushrooms Psilocybe for her "cositas".

📕"An irreverent novel, somewhere between picaresque and historical document, that captivates and enchants." Cheers, on 'Little Things' by Benoît Coquil. In bookstores May 28!

📕 Start reading. 👉 https://t.co/0gsQVYM2M6 #Cositas #SeixBarral #BenoîtCoquil #NewBook ​​#NewReading pic.twitter.com/E6TFh5Bjeu

— Seix Barral (@Seix_Barral) May 26, 2025

Associate professor of Spanish and Latin American civilization and literature at the University of Picardy Jules Verne , Coquil explained in Barcelona (Spain) that he conceived the story as an "adventure novel" in which he contrasts this figure with that of the American couple, Gordon and Valentina Wasson, who are real characters and who are fond of mycology.

At the same time, and not without humor, he delves into what the West has done over the centuries when it encounters indigenous cultures across the seas and how it "commercializes and exoticizes" them.

Published in Spanish by Seix Barral and in Catalan by Periscopi, in Cositas the reader will learn about the Wassons' trips to Mexico in the 1950s and their "discovery" there of Psilocybe, the seed of the psychedelic counterculture, which will spark the interest of the CIA and pharmaceutical laboratories as well as Walt Disney and the hippie movement.

Fascinated by María Sabina, the half-saint of Huautla , he spent months researching her, and during that time he came across the marriage formed by Gordon, a banker in New York who became vice president of JP Morgan, and Valentina Wasson, his wife of Russian origin, a pediatrician, who has always appeared in the background, when she was the "scientist of the family and the one who had the intuition that the mushrooms Sabina used could be used for therapeutic purposes."

Regarding Gordon Wasson, he has noted that he grew somewhat fond of him, although he was a "contradictory" person , whom he calls, not without irony, the "Christopher Columbus of magic mushrooms."

However, he likes his character for his "curiosity and his ability to get to the bottom of a topic , in addition to the amusing contrast between his life as a banker and his passion for hallucinogenic mushrooms, which he tried just like his wife."

Regarding María Sabina, she stated that from the very beginning she was struck by the fact that she was a "powerful" figure for years, being the "healer" of her community , but with a life "marked by misery, who lived the end of her days excluded, being elevated posthumously, becoming an iconic figure of the 20th century."

By showing her among clouds of smoke, he did not want her to be seen as someone of "impeccable purity."

One of the requests that María Sabina made to the Wassons when she saw their interest in Psilocybe was that they not divulge it or explain to anyone what happened when it was tested , something that was not fulfilled, because Gordon Wasson wrote an article in Life magazine and life in Huautla changed forever.

"The discovery of the mushroom came when everyone in the West was very alert to new experiences and eager to try new things and experiment . It was a perfect moment," he described.