North Woods is one of those books that is almost impossible to review and put into a category because it is a unique read. The story centers around a house in the woods in New England. We follow the stories of the people that pass through the house and the patch of land over the course of decades and generations. This is a book about connections, a sense of place, history, and the passage of time. Daniel Mason has written a beautiful novel and writes in the most enchanting and lyrical way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this ARC.

The summary for this novel is so perfect that I can't really think of much to add. Picture a little house in the New England woods and all the stories the house and the woods could tell you. The house would tell you stories of lovers, families, and feuds. The land would tell you stories of what is planted, grown, and buried. The house grows and shrinks with additions and demolitions. Bugs, birds, and animals mate, migrate, and go extinct. Time marches on and the chapters lay bare a myriad of horrors both natural and manmade (sometimes woman-made.)

Beginning in the mid-1700s and spanning to a modern-day/near-future digital rendering of the space, this little spot in the woods is full of stories that had my heart breaking and my jaw dropping. North Woods is as much an ode to nature as it is a series of character studies, and I had a "that makes sense" epiphany when I read Daniel Mason's author bio at the end of the novel, learning that he is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford University.

I have not read any of Mason's other work but now I've got to check out some of his other novels: The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and (Pulitzer Prize finalist) A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth.

Have you read any books by Daniel Mason?
Is North Woods on your TBR?

I love the premise of this book..
It’s the story of a house..in the forests of New England.. and the many occupants who lived there throughout many, many years.
It’s also as much about the land and nature as the people in the story.
Some really beautiful writing and the story is magical but also has topics of occult, madness, ghostly presence… but most of all connections across time.

It was a slow read for me.. I had put this down at one point and just recently picked it back up.. I’m glad I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC!

The story begins in the wild, forested land of Western Massachusetts. First there was the land, then the people arrived over hundreds of years. Each person was affected by the land but also affecting the land through their actions, dreams, and relationships. A small hut appears on the land and gradually morphs into something bigger, but necessarily better. It contains all that was and will be while remaining true to the land it sits upon. The only permanence is change and the cycle of the natural world.

Each chapter is a jewel of a vignette. Sometimes there is tragedy, comedy, wonder and terror. Sometimes there is all four in a single story. Yet always there is compassion and beautiful prose that mirrors what has been lost and what may yet be preserved. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher of providing this extraordinary title.

First of all, the order of the writing in this book is borderline magical. This is the tales of one house in the North Woods beginning with the Puritans and ending in our current time. It is also told over the course of the twelve months of the year, addressing the seasons.

It is more of a collection of short stories of those that inhabit the North Woods. When one story/chapter ends they are gone, but we see into the lives and story of the next person. I really liked the format of this book.

I'm not a short story gal, never have, and while this didn't feel specifically like a short story book exactly it still really kind of was. I think the reason I don't love short stories is because I only get to live with those characters a short amount of time, and I want 300 pages with them instead of 40.

In this book there were some stronger stories that called to me than others, but overall, I felt somewhat distant from the book. Perhaps because of all the story breaks?

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance e-book.

Daniel Mason's new novel is a very special treat for reader. It unfolds over twelve stories that take place on the same piece of land. Imagine sitting on your house and stop and wonder who was before you and so on and so on. Each story is filled with beautiful writing and really gives you a feel for the land as well as the people. It was one of those novels that I woudn't want to finish in one sitting. I really enjoyed reading a story and putting it down and refelcting on the space I was occupying imagining who was there before be and what their life was like. This would be a really fun book for a book clube to see which story touched each member and why. Truly and smart and top notch read that profoundly touched me. Thank you to #netgalley and #randomhouse for the ARC

North Woods is an extraordinary novel: epic, evocative, enthralling. The history, the people, the environment all come to life through the well-chosen, perfect words of author Daniel Mason. It’s a simple premise, the story of events occurring in a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries, beginning with two young lovers fleeing from a Puritan colony.

Through Mason’s masterful writing, including some enticing poetry, we journey through the history of the entire country and come to realize the past is always present. Through memory? Through fate? Through magic? We meet so many people and learn so much about the many ways they live and love, their desires, their baser needs, their secrets, their pain. About links formed and links severed. About love and hope, revenge and meanness, madness. See how events happening around them, societal mores, happenstance affect their lives and their futures.

North Woods is one of the most unique books I have read in a long while. Such a simple premise but so richly full of emotion and life through story after story, expertly woven into one long, delicious thread. North Woods is so different, so unusual and so satisfying. I highly recommend this must-read. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of North Woods via NetGalley. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

*4-4.5 stars

Instead of a family saga, this novel of historical fiction is the story of a house in the North Woods of Massachusetts and the people who lived in it over the centuries, told in vignette-style. I enjoyed the beautiful descriptive writing and the vivid, eccentric characterizations--even some ghosts! I only wish Mason had included a few dates to anchor the plot's movement through time more clearly. Otherwise the storyline kept me totally riveted. I can see why I am hearing rumbles of a Pulitzer Prize for this novel!

I received an arc from the author and publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks! My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

This is the story of a tract of land, its evolution over time, and the people who lived on it and made it their home. In "North Woods", the ghosts are very real, and haunt the present with an active hand.

Sometimes the stories were too short. I wanted to know many of the characters better, and as the book came to a close, time seemed to accelerate, leaving some of them half-known and lightly sketched.

This is a book for anyone who has felt a deep connection with a place and for all of us with a commitment to saving the wild places for the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my free gifted copy of Daniel Mason’s newest book North Woods. In exchange I offer my unbiased opinion.

Trust me, this book will be on all the award lists and best of 2023 lists for its gorgeous writing and imaginative and unique storytelling. North Woods is about the land, its cabin and those who inhabit the property over the course of hundreds of years. Told as vignettes we read the connections we make to the past, present and future. My favorite reads are interconnected stories and this book was truly masterclass.

If you’re looking for a fall book to transport you to another time, place and way of life look no further.
Book publishes today, September 19, 2023. Don’t miss out!

In the first story in North Woods, Daniel Mason’s beautifully written love story for the land, we meet a rebellious young couple escaping from their restrictive Puritan village. They seek refuge in the Massachusetts woods, where they build a cabin to shelter them. The book then follows the story of that cabin, the surrounding land, and the series of people who come to inhabit it through the years and the adventures they encounter. North Woods is a history, a character study, and a plea for responsible stewardship of the land. It is unusual in its structure and content. Not my usual reading, but beautiful prose from a Pulitzer Prize winner. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for review.

The North Woods by Daniel Mason is beautiful, lyrical reflection on the power and mystery of place. In a series of connected short stories, Mason explores the people who have made a place their home and, in doing so, reminds us that we live with history and those that came before us are present in the spaces where we live. This book will stay with me for a long time!

My thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

What an interesting book. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was unique in so many ways. The main character is a home in western MA and the plot revolves around the many owners of the home through the centuries. The writing is just beautiful and the details of the flora and fauna provide a rich background. The book is broken up into many short stories, revealing the owners and visitors over the years. Some of these are particularly memorable and intertwined but some seemed to churn along slowly. Add in some ghosts, magic, murders and poetry and it became a bit too baffling. I know Mason is a celebrated and talented writer, but this book just didn’t connect for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this advance reader copy, in exchange for an honest review. North Woods is a story about history— specifically the history of a particular patch of land in New England and its many inhabitants over the years, ranging from Puritan times to murder and mystical animals.

This story was such a beautiful, lyrical collection of stories about the nature around us that we often take for granted. The story itself doesn’t have a propulsive plot but, rather it seems like the land is the plot and the main character, all wrapped in one, with the human characters taking second stage. The story touches on many sensitive subjects and weaves them in seamlessly to the larger book. It does take some investment to get into the book, as it is a bit of a slow start; but it is definitely worth the effort! Mason’s writing is beautiful and the structure is unique, I’m sure it will stick with me for some time to come.

I’d recommend this book to fellow readers and literary fiction fans!

Thank you to net galley for giving me an e-arc of North Woods by Daniel Mason. It is very rare indeed that a novel of this caliber is written. The language beautifully poetic and rich with imagery. It felt entirely like something written out of time. This will be a story I revisit throughout the years. Best read all year.

Gorgeous writing - stunning writing - about connections spanning hundreds of years in a house in the north woods. Have you ever take a tour through an old house or even been in a truly OLD house and said - “if these walls could talk…” (imagine the stories they could tell). This book does just that. Connection to each other, a community, and the land and the house - all described in a way that was complex and almost ethereal in the way it captured my spirit. Thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy.

All homes have histories, and North Woods tells the story of one of them through the lives of the people that called it home spanning hundreds of years.

Honestly, I don’t think you need to know much else than that. Maybe it’s important to know this book has no true plot, and yet, each resident stands out for their own reason - there’s murder, there’s a seance, there’s a stalking animal… and yet the point of all of this is each residents connection to the earth, to the house itself, and how the outside world perceives the prior residents. This is a story of rebirth and how we live on.

I really enjoyed this. There are some interesting things happening here structurally and I’m excited to grab a finished copy to explore, but I’m very grateful to @randomhouse to read this prior to its publication on Tuesday! I was mesmerized by the prose and storytelling and think will probably never forget this book (and I forget a lot of books).


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Daniel Mason's collection of intertwined stories is both uplifting and solemn at the same time. It is a testament to the human spirit, connections between the past and present, and the unwavering strength of nature running through it all.

There's a bit of a fever dream feeling to this novel, wherein the reader drifts from story to story, but I personally found it impossible to look away. It made me want to travel to New England and find this apple orchard and explore it for myself. To feel the connection to the people and the land.

An absolutely beautiful book, the language is lyrical and descriptive, but manages to avoid the dreaded purple prose which usually has me skimming pages and racing through sections. It is truly captivating, and I have absolute faith in the rumblings that this could very well be this years Pulitzer Prize winner.

My deepest appreciation to Daniel Mason, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

An intriguing and lyrical series of linked stories and poetry all centered around a yellow house in the woods. Spanning 400 years, this starts with a couple who have escaped their Puritan families and then moves to Charles Osgood, who is obsessed with apples, and then his twin daughters, and so on. It's told not only in prose but also in poetry and in letters between two men with a secret and in psychiatric reports. Characters repeat through their families but always, always, the house is there. It's not a happy place- there's more tragedy, pain, and strife than joy but there is pleasure in the woods and trees. It hits multiple themes of racism, slavery, LGBTQ, mental illness, the environment but never hectors. I suspect some might skip the poems and others might find the initial chapters off-putting but keep reading- and know that you might need to reorient yourself as things move forward. I'll be the odd one out on not liking the end but that's a small thing in terms of the overall novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A terrific read.

Thank you Penguin Random House and Net Galley for providing me with an advance copy of this unforgettable novel that I have urged my literary friends to read immediately and my book clubs to put on their schedules of upcoming books. Mason, an assistant professor at Stanford University whose “A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth” was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize, introduces us to a coterie of cottage denizens in rural Western Massachusetts in a novel that spans more than 400 years from the middle of the 17th century to an indeterminate future when climate change has irrevocably altered the earth. Mason opens the novel by introducing carefree lovers who had met in church and were escaping a repressive Puritan village. She was to have wed a minister twice her age whose first wife had died in childbirth and he was said to be “ungodly, consorting with heathens.” Deciding where to build shelter in the forest, “he found a wide, flat stone, pried it from the earth and carried it back into the clearing, where he laid it gently in the soil. Here." From that decision, a universe of dozens of characters — human, animal and supernatural — is generated.

In the beautifully imagined arcs that follow, a woman and her child who were taken hostage by native Americans are sheltered by a woman who “spoke both English and the heathen’s tongue.” That woman takes extreme action against the soldiers gathering to avenge the murders of the colonists “so the Evil stops.” An Englishman who had come to America to serve in the French and Indian War, leaves the military and devotes himself to farming. With his twin girls, Mary and Alice, he worked the land and cultivated an apple he named the “Osgood Wonder.” The novel takes a macabre and shockingly violent turn when it focuses on the joint proprietors of the Osgood Wonder who tended to the orchards for 41 years after the death of their father, navigating war, envy and desire. Suitors came and went, recognizing the futility of their petitions. “And Alice yearned.” In a comic twist, the Farnsworths retain a charlatan, Anastasia Rossi, born Edith Simmons, to dispatch the ghosts that threaten their “Serengeti of Massachusetts,” the hunting lodge that Mr. Farnsworth thought would attract the likes of President Roosevelt.

In addition to his conventional narrative, Mason plays with structure, enlisting memoir, poems, ballads, and an address to a historical society to convey his story. The tragic tale of a friendship turned forbidden romance between renowned landscape painter and resident William Henry Teale and author Erasmus Nash is conveyed through letters. Teale writes about the old home: “new wing goes up, old one becomes the servants’ quarters, old servants’ quarters become the barn, old barn becomes the carriage house, and so on. They molt, these houses!” In “Case Notes on Robert S.,” a psychiatrist pays a visit to a young resident suffering from possible schizophrenia noting his observations. In “Murder Most Cold,” Jack Dunne, a reporter for a pulpy crime magazine, is summoned from New York to investigate a gory death on the property and publishes a lurid story.

Mason’s characters’ presence within nature, as part of the environment and its formation, allows the author to display his affection for the natural world, with lush, evocative descriptions of the Massachusetts landscape through the years and seasons. He has a taste for the fanciful, reflected in vivid accounts of the travels of ship’s ballast that contains seed that scatter and germinate when the ballast is dumped at the harbor, invading the native grasses and a lusty beetle's mating dance that dooms the property's elm trees. Mason does not shy away from the violence in nature, relaying how the Osgood’s Merino sheep were dispatched by the stalking panther who lurks in the pages. This is a stunning, kaleidoscopic novel set against beautiful writing on nature.