Across the border from Oakfield, Massachusetts, the setting of Daniel Mason's North Woods, sits the college town of Greensbury, Vermont, where a young family arrives one summer day from California for an idyllic year in the country. There is Miles, a loveable if highly distractible scholar of Russian folktales who has been "working" on his dissertation for fourteen years; Kate, his wife, a superstar English professor whose ambition is fueled by a brush with serious illness (and managing her hapless husband); their fantasy-loving son Wesley; their artist daughter Olive; and their dog, Giuseppe, a truffle-hunting master of excavation in a land with no truffles.
Over the course of the year, as Kate introduces her students to the pleasures of Milton and Blake, Miles will make no progress on Russian folktales, but will, through what Kate calls his "capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere," gain entrée into a world with a mystery of its own, a place not only of immense natural beauty and unforgettable neighbors, but also a bizarre, even ridiculous, local legend, which - Miles begins to wonder - might not be a legend after all.
A fantastical journey through family, folktales and a world beneath our feet . . . the whole thing is delivered in prose so witty and gorgeous that it calls to mind Nabokov's comic masterpiece Pnin, surely another of the book's literary antecedents. This is, put simply, a joyful book - and the deeper you dig, the more joyful it becomes - Guardian
Mason's prose is full of playful narrative sleights of hand . . . a treat - Sunday Times
Lyrical and joyful - Sarah Jessica Parker
Wonderful - full of joy - and exactly the kind of reading experience we could all do with right now. The book of the summer - Mick Herron, author of SLOW HORSES
A rippling, rambunctious mystery that ricochets between the earthy and the sublime. Told with warmth and wit, Mason's prose shimmers in this immersive ode to stories, to the land, and its people - Lucy Steeds, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE ARTIST
A charming, funny, exhilarating Vermont adventure - Clare Fuller, author of SWIMMING LESSONS
Superb. I was instantly drawn into Mason's bright, clever, wry world. There was so much to admire about the story with its terrestrial and subterrestrial layers, the fun Mason has with the preoccupations and contradictions of post-pandemic America, the warmth and love he shows for and between his characters, and the artful way he illuminates the power of community - Dr Gavin Francis, bestselling author of ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING and THE UNFRAGILE MIND
