Nov 26

Nov 26 North Woods

Author: Daniel Mason
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

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 daring, moving tale of memory and fate from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?

My Review

See, now this is what I want every literary historical fiction novel to be for the rest of time. More books like this please!!

North Woods is super engaging and creative in structure, with the focus on the woods (and a house in those woods, complete with apple orchard) over 4+ centuries. We meet not only the people who lived in the house, but also the animals — and we get not only traditionally narrated chapters, but also songs, newspaper clippings, and more. It’s a tapestry, it’s a patchwork quilt, it’s the circle of life in miniature, and it is equally heartbreaking and delightful (and, at times, quite shocking).

Truly, I just loved this one so much. If you like books that span lifetimes, connect them in super-smart ways, cut to the quick of an excellent character in no time flat, weave in nature, and experiment with structure, run don’t walk!