North Woods

“With the expansiveness & immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, & Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of & appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.” — San Francisco Chronicle

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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 & 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 & famine, envy & 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 & mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

This magisterial & highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims with love & madness, humor & hope. Following the cycles of history, nature, & even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history, & to one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets & 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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Daniel Mason is the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, & A Registry of My Passage Upon Earth.