American author Daniel Mason is a new name for me. He has now written five fictional works and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He’s won numerous awards in his homeland. His first novel was turned into an opera and he is a psychiatrist who also is an assistant professor at Stanford University where he teaches literature, so the fault about not knowing about him is purely mine-he’s certainly been busy!
This book features a yellow house located in woodland in Massachusetts. It moves through generations who live in or have something to do with the house and reflects the passage of time both within their lives and the natural world. It took me a while to get into it until we meet the Osgood family, especially identical twins Alice and Mary who take on their father’s apple business when he goes off to war and builds upon his success with the most delicious Osgood Wonder apple, which becomes one of those moments in fiction when my mouth watered at every mention. (I think of this as “Turkish Delight Syndrome” after “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe”). This book really comes to life at this point. There’s huge versatility here- there’s songs and ballads, letters, speeches, a true crime column from a pulp magazine, medical case notes, estate agent details as each generation has some links to the property, its environment and its mysteries. The most striking thing about it is its unpredictability- at no point did I seem to know where it was going.
I did feel I was playing catch-up, having to piece things together at the start of each section, then being really drawn into each story which tended to end before I was ready for it. I thought this would lead to frustration but it didn’t. It did keep me on my toes and with those woods ever present it produced an almost hypnotic effect. I found myself tracking back through the generations in my head, not wanting to lose any of the connections and was even happy when it flew off on some tangent, often to a depiction of time passing within the natural world.
I came away with the sense of something extraordinary, the ending pulls everything together as we pass through history to the present day and beyond with ghosts and echoes of the past and even physical remains adding to the experience for each successive generation with such strong links to its environment. The history and ecology of a location go side by side within this vividly told literary novel.
North Woods is published by John Murray on 19th September 2023. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, John Murray Press and the author Daniel Mason.
I absolutely loved the storytelling in this book. It was spooky, atmospheric and totally immersive. The author paints such a vivid picture of the house, the woods, and the inhabitants that you're desperate to return to it and find out what happens next. I would have to agree with other reviewers, totally electrifying and each story arc wound together well. Would recommend!

A really extraordinary and wonderful book - the history of a house in New England over a period of 400 years, with not all of the inhabitants over the centuries having fully departed! Yes, there are ghosts here, and this reviewer is not a fan of ghost stories, but the spirits are so seamlessly integrated into the story that it flows completely naturally and believably throughout. Not all that has happened at North Woods over the centuries has been good or fair, and this is acknowledged with compassion and care by the writer - the writing is beautifully constructed and always thoughtful. I’ve never read a book quite like this and it did start a little slowly, but once it got going, it was impossible to leave it until the final words.

Wonderful, lyrical story telling the story of North Woods - the land, the trees, the buildings and the residents over the centuries. Told through a mixture of straight prose, poetry, song, letters, newspaper articles etc, Mason builds a thorough depiction of a corner of Massachusetts. Much as history builds in layers, the different layers of North Woods are exposed, with a palimpsest feel as the earlier inhabitants can still be seen through their actions and their impact on the land. At times almost a ghost story, especially in the way emotions and their impact can linger over the generations.
North Woods is a masterpiece.

The book tells the stories of some of the changing inhabitants of an isolated house deep in the woods in North Massachusetts over a 400 year period from runaway lovers escaping a Puritan Colony when the house is just a shack, to an English Revolutionary War soldier turned apple farmer, spinster twin sisters, a crime writer, a painter and so on advancing through history into the near future. and an climate change message. The novel is cleverly constructed using twelve interlinked stories following the twelve months of the years and based in the corresponding seasons. The house and the woods have a pervasive dark, sinister undertone bordering on the supernatural. The narrative illustrates how we are connected to or environment and one another through time. I admired rather than loved this book. Daniel Mason writes beautifully and uses songs, an article anad other interesting ways to help tell a story but I felt I was just starting to get really interested in a resident of the house and their story when we off again to another time period and a new face, so, for me, it didn't feel immersive. It reminded me of John Boyne's, A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom and The Overstory by Richard Powers, books which I admired rather than felt passionately about.

I must start this review by saying that I have only read the very beginning……which I found to be intriguing. However, I have found it to need a lot more concentration than I am able to dredge up at the moment. However, due to the amazing reviews by other trusted Netgalley reviewers I will be re-reading at a later date. My review rating is based on the fact that I rarely return to a book I have not completed but I certainly want to with this one.
Thank you Netgalley for ARC.

Be warned, this one is a slow burn. At 20% or so I was considering DNFing, but I perservered and I'm very glad I did so. It comes together and builds beautifully, and the last quarter or so is superb. Some wonderful lyrical nature writing, and boundless compassion and empathy for a wide range of lives.

"North Woods" is a very special novel. I wasn't sure how I felt about it initially - I hadn't read anything about the plot before I started and found it a little difficult to get into because of the style of writing. But once I got into it, I was hooked.

Essentially, the book tells the story of a house in the woods of Massachusetts across four centuries, the people that lived in or visited it and the nature that surrounds it. The author is an absolute magician in the way that they weave together all of these aspects and include so much detail and I applaud them for it. Additionally, the style of writing changes as the plot progresses through the centuries and that draws you in even more.

As with most books, I enjoyed reading some character's stories and thoughts more than others. But all were fascinating. One character I absolutely fell in love with and was heartbroken by their story...but I won't spoil things by saying which! And the section on the behaviour of the beetles is absolute genius for the descriptions and the comic aspects of it.

One thing I would advise (which I don't think you'll find difficult!) is to read it as quickly as possible. I know it's often good to savour a book but so much in the early chapters is referred to later on that even though I read it in three sittings over a week, I think I missed some of the links.

I would definitely recommend this book and thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

Reading this book is a breathtaking, absorbing experience. You have to wonder at the skill of the writing, the thread of a story that is sustained through the centuries, and the sheer beauty of the ending - respect due to a master storyteller.

All that and nothing really happens. A house sustains, its inhabitants come and go, and are always surrounded by the beauty and the terror of the external world that endures. It's difficult to explain the pull of the book, it would be unforgiveable not to read it.

What an extraordinary book! I've never read anything like it and a few days later, I'm still thinking so much about it.

The story covers a house built in the woods of Massachusetts and all the people who inhabit it, from the Puritan couple running away together who first build on the site through to the near future. The story of the people (settlers, not indigenous - the indigenous people only really appear at the start but their fate is covered and its clear they have inhabited the woods without negative impact previously) are interwoven with the nature of the area, particularly the trees, and peppered throughout the books are small illustrations of this which enhance the story so well.

The history of the settler people is told in a variety of ways, from a personal history inscribed in the margins of a family bible, through personal letters, magazine articles and the more traditional forms of storytelling and each of them is brought fully to life, with the writing beautifully in keeping with the time and place in which the character is set. Often their final fate is only really revealed by what a future character discovers about them which makes it all flow very naturally. There is also a supernatural element, which is done with a very light touch and makes it all the more intriguing and touching.

The woods are an absolute character in themselves, even more so than the house and its changes, and the impact of the people on the woods around them is handled so well - it really brings home with a shock how much has been lost and what impact this is having on us all.

This is a truly special book and I know it will stay with me for a long time.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in return for an honest review.

#NorthWoods #NetGalley

Good heavens, this is a staggeringly good book. I was expecting ghosts and atmospheric thrills. Maybe the odd gasp here and there. Instead I got a lyrical, many layered, absolutely riveting story where insects and even fungi are important characters. There are ghosts- great ghosts. There are genuine jaw dropping moments, one in particular. It's one of the best books I've read in ages. 6/5!

I absolutely loved this book! Gentle storytelling but full of imagery and creative connections between the characters and stories. I loved that it told the story of the little cabin and the occupants throughout the ages so you also got a real sense of how history was unravelling at the same time. The use of poems between some chapters really made this feel like a unique book.

I have reviewed North Woods for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading. It has been chosen as a LoveReading Star Book and a Liz pick of the month. Please see link to full review.

This is a hard book to rate because I liked some of it but not ALL of it.
First I will say it has rich literary writing and was filled with beautiful language that I loved those parts, really made me imagine what I was reading.
However I didn't really enjoy the story as much and something was missing for me. I did finish it but only just.

What a wonderfully enchanting story! I particularly like tales which follow a theme through the ages. This book has the reader thinking back to follow the thread that links one chapter to another, often after several other stories have been told in the interim. The description of the wood and how both man and nature change it is the real star of this book. I feel that I have indeed visited this area of Massachusetts and watched the yellow house and the landscape evolve. The author manages to make the characters both integral to the continuity but incidental at the same time. Many were sympathetic, some were not, but all added to the winding trail back to the start of European man's Prescence in this land. I felt that the ending was a little contrived but having said that, I very much liked the way that all the threads throughout the ages rejoined. The reader is left with a feeling of reassurance that nature will perpetuate, given time and space.
A difficult story to categorize but perfect for anyone interested in nature, history, anthropology, or just a a good tale!

An engaging book that focuses on the occupants of one specific patch of land in New England. Mason has created a series of interlocking narratives that focus on not only the differing lives that humans live as the centuries pass, but also their relationship with the land around them. The presences that stay the longest in their timeline are those that connect to the wider world around them.

Full of captivating description of the natural landscape, North Woods, is as much a piece of nature writing as a novel in its truest sense and makes you yearn to take a trip to the area. The families, individuals and strangers that pass through the story will likewise live on once the last page is read.

North Woods is unlike any other book I have read before. I found myself so submerged in the words and book that I almost was there within the branches, trees and leaves. This is a book all about stories from the woods in Massachusetts told over 200 years and follows many inhabitants of the 'yellow house' deep in the forest. There a many beautiful descriptions of the woods and they never get repetitive or old. There are families through generations, war stories, murders and seasonal changes that we live through over the decades and centuries with amazing history. The book has a bit of everything, from poetry, lyrical language, crime reports and photographs. A great sense of history and what it was like to have lived through different years. There is a strong message of destruction that we humans are causing to the world. How beauty is often obliterated through building and nature and tree, animal and bird species are dying out and fast. I will be recommending this book to others.

This was a well written book and I enjoyed the changes in style and time.
However, I did find it quite hard to engage with the trajectory and wanted to spend more time with each narrative arc as they could all have been a book on their own.
Thank you to netgalley and John Murray press for an advance copy of this book

North Woods tells the story of an area of land in Oakfield, America as it changes over time. From early settlers to present day; the people who inhabit this woodland and how they change it; nature and how it alters the ecology. The layers of history are interspersed with images and poetry or songs and time seeps through so that ghosts of the past appear.
It was interesting comparing this to Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert set in a UK woodland where folklore took centre stage amongst the trees. In North Woods the folklore consists of a fierce wild cat that inhabits the area - America has less mystical tales to draw on, so it is the ghosts of people that populate this tale.
The reading of this book is best taken slow in order to assimilate the one period of time before moving on to the next. There are some memorable characters and stories within the history and the final chapters were quite moving in their way of bringing the past and future together in a fantastical coda.

This got off to a good start and I was really enjoying it - but then it started to ramble and I very nearly gave up. But the reviews were glowing so I carried on - and I'm glad I did. There were still some ramblings but I found most of it enjoyable and liked the way the stories of the inhabitants of the house wove together.