North Woods by Daniel Mason

North Woods by Daniel Mason
UK Publication: September 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★★]

This ARC was provided by John Murray Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Two word review – Loved.It.

Synopsis from Goodreads: 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 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 Thoughts:  This is the book I wanted to read on the Booker Longlist sadly this didn’t make that list but it is the Booker readers who are missing out and not me.

I loved everything about this book, in ways it reminded me of Cloud Atlas with the cabin as the central character that the reader follows down through the years, it even has that cyclical feel that we end where we begin.

Mason explores all aspects of the “life” of the cabin, from the inhabitants, the land surrounding it, the local wildlife and of course the ghosts who haunt it. Each chapter gives a new and unique view and each is interlinked following the rich history down through the years.

Unique, intriguing and compelling.

Who would like this? This is another one that I would recommend to everyone, take a step back from the modern world and lose yourself in history unfolding, you won’t regret it. Plus Ghosts!!

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