North Woods by Daniel Mason

 Get ready to read a wonderful crazy new book by Daniel Mason. North Woods was published this fall and knowing how much I enjoyed Daniel Mason’s earlier books this new one went right to the top of my “to read” pile and rescued me from reading yet another mystery novel just to pass the time.

 North Woods begins in the 1700’s in Massachusetts, continues through the American Revolution, Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency, throughout the following years until the present time.

 The story weaves in and out of time with characters following one after the other, all with some connection to a cabin, which becomes a house, added on to again and again over the years it stands in the remote countryside.

 This is a rollicking story of murder and mayhem. There are sisters, always together, even in death, forevermore. There is a minister who sees biblical events in his own landscape, among his own parishioners. There is the dissemination of seeds from Europe into the American landscape, apple seeds among them. There are runaway slaves and those who hunt them. There is a writer and a painter, correspondents. There is deceit. There is a séance. There is a Catamount – a puma, a cougar, a mountain lion, a panther. There is a button manufacturer. There is a crime writer. There is a dog. There is love.

 There is change not only to the human population but also to the landscape with the passage of time. There is disease, the destruction of the Elm trees. And worse to come.

 I laughed out loud. I was taken by surprise – after believing what I was reading to find it was all fiction. Of course, it is all fiction, of the most wonderful kind. North Woods is so unlike Daniel Mason’s earlier, also wonderful, novels, but every bit as good. You’ll be lost in a beautifully written scene. I think the author must have had a great time writing this novel, and what a gift to a reader to be swept along on the wake of this tale of a place, in its glory and neglect. And its people who, over many generations, inhabit a house they never really leave.

 North Woods. Beautiful writing combined with a fantastic story – a great read!