Author(s): Daniel Mason

General Fiction

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike.

An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples.

A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire.

A crime reporter unearths a mass grave - only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets.

A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

In his transcendent fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a magisterial and highly inventive tale brimming with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we're connected to our environment, to history and to each other. It is not just an unforgettable novel about buried secrets and inevitable fates, but a way of looking at the world.

Matilda Bookshop Review

On a fertile patch of land in New England, a stone is set to mark the place where two lovers will build a home. This is where the story of many generations begins. Under the eyes of the house in the North Woods, man and beast will live and die. This work is staggeringly ambitious and an absolute triumph! By focusing on the comings and goings in one tiny corner of the earth, Mason reveals the interconnected nature of all things. I loved North Woods for its intimate tableaus of mortal experience, as well as for its overarching grandeur. Emilie