The central character of North Woods is a house; a yellow house in the woods of Western Massachusetts that has been there for centuries. The residents of the house, which at times include Puritan lovers escaping their oppressive community, an orchardist and his insular twin daughters, a runaway slave, a nature painter obsessing over a complicated relationship with a writer, a mountain lion hoarding kills, and a broad host of insects, seeds, and ghosts, come and go, but the house holds steady through the years. If all of this sounds disconnected and hard to piece together, you would be happy to find yourself wrong. The threads of all those lives weave together and intersect in surprising and poignant ways, and Mason deftly transverses disparate periods and voices throughout history in truly fascinating ways.
With a plot reminiscent of the sprawling scope of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the naturalist heart of Richard Powers’ The Overstory, this book will needle its way into your consciousness and make you think about this history of your own home, family, and place in the natural world. This is my favorite thing I’ve read so far this year.
-Hannah, Program and Outreach Manager
North Woods is one of the February titles of the PFL Book Group.
