Daniel Mason's latest novel is
one of those rare books that truly deserves the description spellbinding * Observer *
Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat * Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books *
Creates a tale of sensory obsession to rank with Patrick Suskind's Perfume . . . Shows us what is possible when a writer lets his hair down * Financial Times *
Deliciously chimeric * Telegraph *
Stunning * Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month *
Narrative expertise is supported by rich characterisation: in chapter after chapter, Mason swiftly realises his compelling, varied cast . . .
It seems almost a magic trick, the way in which Mason knits his lives into a single tale.
He links their stories together with a satisfying subtlety that never fails to surprise and delight . . . and he brings well-earned surprises that had me, on more than one occasion, gasping with shock * Sunday Times *
Mason follows the inhabitants of a secluded western Massachusetts home and their tragedies across centuries in
this spectacular ghost story . . . [He] interleaves his crystalline prose with enchanting and authentic-seeming historical documents . . .
Each arc is beautifully, heartbreakingly conveyed, stitching together subtle connections across time. This astonishes * Pulbishers Weeky, starred review *
Virtuosic, astonishing, gorgeously vivid -- Alison O'Keeffe * Bookseller *
The story of a house, the humans who inhabit it, the ghosts who haunt it, and the New England forest encompassing them all . . .
Readers will find themselves in an entrancing fictional realm where the human, natural, and supernatural mingle, all captured in the author's effortlessly virtuosic prose . . . Throughout, this loose and limber novel explores themes of illicit desire, madness, the occult, the palimpsest of human history, and the inexorable workings of the natural world (a passage recounting the fateful mating of an elm bark beetle is unforgettable), all
handled with a touch that is light and sure. Like the house at its center, a book that is
multitudinous and magical. * Kirkus *
A magisterial mosaic . . .
truly triumphant * Booklist *
Adopting a variety of styles and literary forms, and written in elegant prose, this is a virtuoso
performance. All human life and nature is here. Truly outstanding
* Mail on Sunday *
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' * Ron Charles, Washington Post *
North Woods is a monumental achievement of polyphony and humanity. Relating the narrative of an entire country via a single plot of land, it sweeps the reader through hundreds of years and an array of protagonists with a deft, heartbreaking, idiosyncratic zeal. I loved it. * Maggie O'Farrell *
North Woods is a sui generis work of pure brilliance, an epic written with a miniaturist's precision. Daniel Mason has unearthed, in the centuries-spanning history of a single New England home, a universal story of loss and reclamation. This is the best book I've read in ages * Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS *
Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity,
North Woods is an immersive sprint through time. It offers an inventive portrait of the individual and the collective, a vivid history of a cabin and a country, inhabiting each of its characters with a compassion that took my breath away. I emerged from this book as though from an enchanted forest, covered in leaves and changed by what I had seen there. Electrifying * Tess Gunty, author of THE RABBIT HUTCH *
