A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—“a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
“With the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.”—San Francisco Chronicle
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bookreporter
When two 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 nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims 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 one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone?
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—“a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
“With the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.”—San Francisco Chronicle
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bookreporter
When two 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 nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims 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 one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone?
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Find North Woods Daniel Mason in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find North Woods Daniel Mason in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
1 books in catalog
Historical and contemporary fiction spanning centuries and remote landscapes often bridges the precise observations of natural science with deep psychological portraits of human vulnerability. Author Daniel Mason has built an acclaimed literary career exploring these intersections, most prominently in his widely celebrated novel North Woods.
Raised in Palo Alto, California, Daniel Mason earned a BA in biology from Harvard University before graduating from the UCSF School of Medicine. He wrote his debut novel, The Piano Tuner (2002), while still a medical student; the book achieved international publication in 28 countries and served as the basis for a 2004 opera composed by Nigel Osborne with a libretto by Amanda Holden. Mason followed his debut with his second novel, A Far Country (2007). Alongside his writing, he works as a clinical assistant professor and practicing psychiatrist affiliated with Stanford Hospital and Stanford Medicine, and he teaches literature at Stanford University. Married to the novelist Sara Houghteling, Mason received the US$50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize in May 2020, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2024 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for North Woods.
Mason's fiction frequently draws upon his scientific background, combining botanical, medical, and historical detail with deep empathy for human isolation and connection. His prose constructs detailed settings across shifting eras, examining how human lives intersect with the natural environment over extended periods. In short fiction collections like A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth as well as his full-length novels, his narratives balance observational precision with vivid imagery, capturing the psychological and ecological traces left behind by successive generations.
1 books in catalog
Historical and contemporary fiction spanning centuries and remote landscapes often bridges the precise observations of natural science with deep psychological portraits of human vulnerability. Author Daniel Mason has built an acclaimed literary career exploring these intersections, most prominently in his widely celebrated novel North Woods.
Raised in Palo Alto, California, Daniel Mason earned a BA in biology from Harvard University before graduating from the UCSF School of Medicine. He wrote his debut novel, The Piano Tuner (2002), while still a medical student; the book achieved international publication in 28 countries and served as the basis for a 2004 opera composed by Nigel Osborne with a libretto by Amanda Holden. Mason followed his debut with his second novel, A Far Country (2007). Alongside his writing, he works as a clinical assistant professor and practicing psychiatrist affiliated with Stanford Hospital and Stanford Medicine, and he teaches literature at Stanford University. Married to the novelist Sara Houghteling, Mason received the US$50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize in May 2020, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2024 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for North Woods.
Mason's fiction frequently draws upon his scientific background, combining botanical, medical, and historical detail with deep empathy for human isolation and connection. His prose constructs detailed settings across shifting eras, examining how human lives intersect with the natural environment over extended periods. In short fiction collections like A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth as well as his full-length novels, his narratives balance observational precision with vivid imagery, capturing the psychological and ecological traces left behind by successive generations.
