“It’s this curiosity-piquing cocktail of mystery and wonderment that Daniel Mason’s
North Woods taps into with equal parts whimsy and aplomb . . .
North Woods fires on all cylinders by engaging all the senses as it transports readers through history. Frankly, I’d follow Mason’s writing wherever it takes me next, even though this time—miraculously—he stayed in the same spot.”
—San Francisco Chronicle “It’s a dazzling high-wire act—and it’s thrilling to read because it never feels like Mason is showing off, just that he thought way outside the box as he searched for the perfect format for each story. There are a lot of great books coming out this fall but, if I were you, I’d start with this one.”
—The Star Tribune“
North Woods is a monumental achievement of polyphony and humanity. Relating the narrative of an entire country via a single plot of land, it sweeps the reader through hundreds of years and an array of protagonists with a deft, heartbreaking, idiosyncratic zeal. I loved it.”
—Maggie O’Farrell, New York Times bestselling author of Hamnet“
North Woods is the most original and spellbinding novel I’ve read in ages. Mason makes bramble, brush, and orchard come alive with the spirits of their unforgettable former inhabitants. Their lives and passionate loves and their chilling acts of vengeance had me glued to my seat.”
—Abraham Verghese, New York Times bestselling author of The Covenant of Water“Ambitious, alive, and lush . . . I emerged from this book as though from an enchanted forest, covered in leaves and changed by what I had seen there. . . . Electrifying.”
—Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch“
North Woods is a sui generis work of pure brilliance, an epic written with a miniaturist’s precision. Daniel Mason has unearthed, in the centuries-spanning history of a single New England home, a universal story of loss and reclamation It’s the best book I’ve read in ages.”
—Anthony Marra, author of Mercury Pictures Presents“Mason depicts all of [the] stories with sympathy, sensitivity, and affectionate humor. Epic in scope and ambitious in style, this book succeeds on all counts. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal (starred review)“Readers, too, will find themselves in an entrancing fictional realm where the human, natural, and supernatural mingle, all captured in the author’s effortlessly virtuosic prose . . . Like the house at its center, a book that is multitudinous and magical.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Each arc is beautifully, heartbreakingly conveyed, stitching together subtle connections across time. This astonishes.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“
North Woods is a love poem to the human and natural history of Western Massachusetts. Most brilliant of all is the novel’s daring storytelling, through which its tales come spectacularly to life. They are wise, profound, chilling, carnal and funny.”
—BookPage
