North Woods by Daniel Mason is a wonderful panoramic of a single place across time. The stories that are contained in this book meander through generations and are spun around a particular plot of Massachusetts land and the house that stands upon it. From the early puritans to the modern day, Mason imagines and introduces the people, animals, and spirits who are connected to the yellow house in the north woods.

Each chapter tells the story of an occupant, some of which are directly related to characters that a came before and some that are threaded together though details of the past. He includes a variety of ephemera, like pictures, letters, and case notes, to flesh out the details and give the novel the feel of historical documentation. Each tale has a unique feel and as a reader I felt more interested and invested in some characters than in others, but despite that there is a cohesion to the overarching story. The north woods itself feels like a persona and works to bind together the collection of narratives. It seems to function as a reminder of how time continues its endless march on, and the significance of the symbiosis between humans and nature.

The prose is beautiful and kept me on my toes as it shifted and changed to meet the period and the voice of the varying accounts found within. Mason’s exacting descriptions and eye for detail made the book feel rich and weighty without feeling cumbersome. I particularly enjoyed the surprises that the author incorporated into several of the stories. I felt pleased to be walking along the path of a character’s story and then suddenly find that we were taking an unexpected turn. North Woods isn’t the kind of book that you devour in an afternoon, it is the kind of book that you take in more slowly and savor. I give this book four out of five stars and recommend it to those who are looking to soak themselves in some circuitous literary fiction.

Successful linked or interconnected stories are a difficult feat to pull off. Elizabeth Strout is one of the few authors who does it well. But I loved Daniel Mason’s The Winter Soldier, so I wanted to see how he would do. And he also succeeds.
Mason bases his novel on a single property, located in the woods of western Massachusetts. The writing is beautiful and Mason matches the writing style to the time period being portrayed. The book is a mix of story, letters, a true crime magazine article, a speech and songs. He describes not just the inhabitants of the house, but the nature that surrounds it, the seasons of the year. There’s even humor. “And Mary, whose longing for precision and clarity extended even into language, thought there really should be a word for this particular kind of explaining boys did to girls…”.
The stories take the reader through the centuries, from a couple fleeing the Puritans in the 1600s through the future. It’s a reminder that while we are specks in time, the land remains. But even nature is subject to change. Mason takes us through the loss of one tree species after another. The book covers a myriad of topics, including ghosts, psychosis, sexuality, loneliness, jealousy.
I was actually shocked at how this book drew me in. Characters come and go, but their names (and sometimes bones) reappear over the years. While most characters only appeared for a single chapter, I was invested in them all.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Note - I just discovered that Mason’s prior book, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth is also a series of interconnected stories and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. So, this isn’t his first time pursuing this style. Guess I need to find time to read it.

This is a rather odd book to read. You need to pay attention and do not try to read it fast. We follow along through many years of different stories of how multiple characters came to live in this little cabin.

I found the sister story to be the creepiest. This is not a fast read; you need to just let it wander.

I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for my unbiased review – This one comes in with 4 stars.

The same land and home throughout the years. Amazing concept and I was hooked instantly. Was a bit long winded on the apples, but otherwise solid and well worth the read.

Oh my. "North Woods" by Daniel Mason is the book that will ruin all other books for me in 2023. I don't believe any other book I have read, or will read, this year will measure up to the perfection that is this book. It is literary fiction at its finest-a true masterpiece. The writing is exquisite; I was completely immersed in the world Mr. Mason created. I could smell the forest, hear the insects and the birds, and feel the cool shade of the trees. I was utterly enchanted from the first page to the last and was genuinely sad to leave this plot of land when the last word was read. If you read only one book this year, make sure it is this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the true privilege of reading an advanced copy of this magnificent work of art. This is a book that should grace the shelves of any serious reader.

Wonderful history and beautiful writing but a little too slow paced for my taste, with more description than works for me. I can easily see a different type of reader loving this book.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing me an ARC.

Bottom line: I'm obsessed with this book. I went into it not knowing anything about the author and was not surprised at all when I got to the end and discovered that he's won so many awards. This is a masterful work.

The thing that really stood out to me in this text was how slowly it built ups its magic. I think the description doesn't quite do it justice. I won't say much, because I think part of the pleasure of this book is in the discovery of how the past bleeds into the present. But, I will say that this book is not just a grounded, realist story of the variety of people who inhabit a place. It is much more.

From a more technical standpoint, this book really sings in its descriptions. Because it is so focused on the forest and nature, the descriptions are vitally important to the story and creating the write atmosphere. The success of how the forest is rendered greatly adds to the plot of the various characters that are introduced to us as they are all differently effected by the nature around them.

I can not recommend this book enough to those who enjoy literary work with fantastical elements. It's a great example of that type of genre.

This book is about a house and the land, the forests that surround it. It starts with two young lovers escaping their families in the very early colonial period of the US. They find a piece of land in Western Massachusetts and build a one room cabin. We follow the cabin's history as it becomes a home/a house for many people up to the modern era.
Some of the book was so interesting and compelling and some of it was not. But as a whole, it is a beautiful telling of our history, how we relate to the land around us, and the changes over the last 400 years. We get inside the hearts of people, of insects, of trees, of blight--it is so well researched and so fascinating. And it's very clear who wins in the end-man or nature. I highly recommend this book

Daniel Mason’s novel, North Woods, reads more like a collection of linked stories then a novel. All of the stories are tied to a house in a remote area of Western Massachusetts and the inhabitants of the house over a period from colonial settlers to the present. I enjoyed some of the stories and characters more than others and after a while the connections between the inhabitants became harder to follow and remember. The land that the house sits on is threatened and a significant message in the book is about the harm we are doing to trees, flora and nature in general. This book was a major undertaken for the author and besides the people stories is filled with ballads, information on trees, birds, orchards, etc. While I enjoyed the book initially, I felt it went on too long and lost my interest. I’m not sure this book will have broad appeal but it does deal with important issues about what humans are doing to their environment.

Very unique novel, set in the early days of New England and set through the lives and stories of several different families and eras. As a born and bred New Englander, I wanted to read this because the history here is so rich. Even the writing style matches the eras and it's very interesting overall.
Thank you to the author for this arc.

Maybe not for everyone, but for me this book was an acquired taste. I sipped the first few pages and wasn’t sure I was going to like it. But the strong writing kept me drinking. And I’m glad I read it all. It’s melodious, poetic, wildly creative, and masterfully executed.

The tale, which hinges on the inhabitants of a modest house in the New England woods, unfolds over the course of many years. It begins with Puritans and stretches to include an English soldier turned farmer, his twin daughters, a crime reporter, an artist, a con man, a student and even non-human inhabitants like a panther and a beetle.

Mason weaves magic into the ordinary as he examines the human heart. Insights into lust, envy, love, desire, fear, longing, and our connection to nature are fruits Mason helps the reader harvest. And he does it with gorgeous prose.

If the first pages put you off in any way, please hang in there and continue reading. It’s a thoughtful look at the mystery and ongoing journey of what it means to be human.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

I found this book rather boring and slow, I never got involved in the story. Lots of ten dollar words for pennies worth of sentences.

2☆

This novel is an amazing look at the history and inhabitants of a house in the North Woods of Massachusetts over the life of the house. It is nicely crafted and told as if the inhabitants were still living there. I have always said if the walls could talk for any house we would be amazed at the stories they could tell. I found the book to be slow in parts and gripping in others. The characters are people that will interest the reader. A pleasant read for the most part. The descriptions of the land, the weather, the wildlife, the trees, flowers and bugs make it a delightful trip through the countryside during each generation of ownership.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5671185919

I couldn’t finish this title, as it unfortunately didn’t really capture my interest. I was hoping it would have.

North Woods is the story of a house from its origin through all the different people who lived in it. Some of the stories are a bit interesting, but, generally I had to force myself to finish it. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

I found the story line to be quite disjointed. While some of the events seemed to follow in a logical way, others seemed to me to be oddly placed. I understand the author's thought process, but I did not like the way that it was done. Not a good read for me.

I'm not even sure where to start with this book, I don't think I've read anything like this before. Without giving away the story, we get to see what happens at a house over centuries in what is eventually western Massachusetts. We start with a couple who runs away from a Puritan colony and end, well you'll have to read it for that ending. It is 👌

This book is gorgeous, funny, moving, and ambitious. It is a shape shifter of a novel, the voice and style smoothly transition to fit the era it's taking place in. You move through the seasons as the narrative moves through the years. There are 12 sections which follow the calendar, it's so subtle! The chapters are mixed with 'found' documents like hospital notes, a pulp magazine article, a captivity narrative, and an undelivered speech. Throughout, the natural and supernatural mix just as easily as the past and present. I love reading a book where I can tell the author is having fun; when you reach the beetle chapter you definitely know Mason is having a blast.

It's beautiful how it all connects. The past is alive, it stays with us and in the land -in more ways than you imagine 👻

North Woods is an absolutely spellbinding novel, full of nature, emotion, beauty and enchantment from beginning to end. It’s difficult for me to elucidate the complexities of the plot and prose that made it so successful, but nonetheless, it’s one that will stick with me for a long time and that I look forward to reading again.

This is a novel told in a narrative form, but also includes unique formats from poetry to songs to letters in order to further tell a story centered on a house in Massachusetts that survives through generations and time. The readers get to know each one of the house’s inhabitants over the years to different degrees and from different perspectives, which may make the book as a whole feel like one of short stories at times, but all of the characters and plotlines are so simultaneously intertwined that it is obviously a complete, continuous saga spanning centuries. The gorgeous descriptions of nature, from woods and trees to flowers and rivers, along with the environmental conditions impacting it all are perfectly captured and place the reader right in that western Massachusetts area.

Through Mason’s immaculate, lyrical prose, we get to see generations of birth, life and death, and ultimately rebirth in the form of nature, characters and the house that connects them all. I couldn’t get enough of the unique structure of the novel, which kept me continuously turning the pages to see not just where the story would go next, but also how I would get to experience it. While I was enchanted the whole way through, I particularly loved the ending, seeing how the entire story came full circle.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

How am I only just hearing about author Daniel Mason?! My hat is off to the man, this book was so impressive. "North Woods" follows the life of a yellow house set back in the Massachusetts forest, from its creation hundreds of years ago to the present day. There are births, deaths, murders, betrayals, redemptions... and lots of ghosts with a tremendous amount of agency.

As the human dramas play out, we are reminded over and over of the beauty in the woods just outside the yellow house. The catamounts, the birds, and the apple orchards are locked in their own battle for survival against pests, fungi, and people. Nature's timetable plays out over a much longer duration than the human lifespan, which means we often fail to see and respect the plant and animal life we are interlocked with... at least, I think that's what our author is getting at.

"North Woods" is an ode human frailty and the ways in which the natural world sustains us. This is one of the best books I've read this year.

North Woods by Daniel Mason is an original and inventive novel that circles around a cabin in Western Massachusetts originally from the Puritan era which develops into a larger contemporary and ramshackle building and all those who have a connection to it. At the same time, the land, and everything tied to it, is gloriously and gently described and emphasized. The forests, birds, and trees, especially the formerly thriving American chestnut, are all recognized for their pulchritude and comfortable stature. Apple trees also play a big role in the plot. The book and its eccentric, whimsical, and sometimes brutal characters are all tied to the land and are cosseted by nature.

The characters, although discrete, are delightfully original and an integral part of the tone shifts throughout the novel. Alice and Mary, eccentric twins who remain lifelong spinsters may be the most memorable, especially after they are placed under the floorboards. The catamount (known out this way as a mountain lion) is another intriguing character who plays a large part in a violent murder.

The combination of nature in all her glory and the varied people who make their way through the centuries in this grand saga do so with grace and challenges and occasionally anger. But somehow, everything and everyone are strongly tied together and move forward in strides with intention and empathy. Daniel Mason has created a brilliant and imminently readable book.