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Country People
A rollicking work of lyricism and humor, about one family’s tumble into the unknown, from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of
North Woods
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales, and increasingly haunted by a sense that he's become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife Kate accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the far away forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be his year to finally move forward with his life.
But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, “a great capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, a Shakespearean temptress and a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in a “Inventory of Wrong Ideas.”
The new friends, the enchanted woods, the sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre—perhaps ridiculous—local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales, and increasingly haunted by a sense that he's become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife Kate accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the far away forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be his year to finally move forward with his life.
But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, “a great capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, a Shakespearean temptress and a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in a “Inventory of Wrong Ideas.”
The new friends, the enchanted woods, the sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre—perhaps ridiculous—local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2026
About the author
Daniel Mason
10 books2,810 followersDaniel Mason is a physician and author of The Piano Tuner (2002), A Far Country (2007), The Winter Soldier (2018), A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth (2020)--a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize-- and North Woods (2023). His work has been translated into 28 languages, awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Piano Tuner was produced as an opera by Music Theatre Wales for the Royal Opera House in London, and adapted to the stage by Lifeline Theatre in Chicago. His short stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Zoetrope: All Story, Zyzzyva, Narrative, and Lapham’s Quarterly, and have been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a National Magazine Award and an O. Henry Prize. An assistant professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, his research and teaching interests include the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 565 reviews
February 15, 2026
I’m not a very good reader of books described as funny. Sometimes I think I just don’t have a good enough sense of humor because many times I find there’s a lot more serious than funny in these books. The book is very funny at times , but it is also reflects the more serious side of life - chronic illness, that marriage is not always easy even when people love each other, finding out who you are can be a slow process.
The novel reads like a modern day fairy tale. The narration felt like - “once upon a time there was a family who moved from urban California to rural Vermont and this is their adventure - Miles, Kate, Wesley, Olive, and Giuseppe their dog and they lived …. Well I’m not going to tell the ending, but I found the story to be endearing with characters I loved. The literary references were a plus for me.
Kate fits in easily in her academic position and the children seem to fit in well in school and with new friends. Miles is the one who has to work hard every day at connecting with the place - but he buys into it whole heartedly trying to absorb the local culture or rather to be absorbed into it, connecting with nature , with his environment, the people he meets, wanting to know about “country people “. All the while neglecting his unfinished dissertations for twelve years.
I enjoyed the beginning, but it slowed down some in the middle. It was enjoyable enough, but I couldn’t help but think how quirky all of the people that Miles encounters and connects with were . I’m not sure this will be for everyone because there were a number of times when I thought - what ?However, Mason’s writing is as beautiful here as it is in his other novels that I’ve read and that kept me reading. I was going to rate it three stars , but then when I read the epilogue I realized how much this quirky bunch of country people meant to each other and to Miles . He’s a character I’ll remember . Deserving of four stars.
I received a copy of this from Random House through NetGalley.
The novel reads like a modern day fairy tale. The narration felt like - “once upon a time there was a family who moved from urban California to rural Vermont and this is their adventure - Miles, Kate, Wesley, Olive, and Giuseppe their dog and they lived …. Well I’m not going to tell the ending, but I found the story to be endearing with characters I loved. The literary references were a plus for me.
Kate fits in easily in her academic position and the children seem to fit in well in school and with new friends. Miles is the one who has to work hard every day at connecting with the place - but he buys into it whole heartedly trying to absorb the local culture or rather to be absorbed into it, connecting with nature , with his environment, the people he meets, wanting to know about “country people “. All the while neglecting his unfinished dissertations for twelve years.
I enjoyed the beginning, but it slowed down some in the middle. It was enjoyable enough, but I couldn’t help but think how quirky all of the people that Miles encounters and connects with were . I’m not sure this will be for everyone because there were a number of times when I thought - what ?However, Mason’s writing is as beautiful here as it is in his other novels that I’ve read and that kept me reading. I was going to rate it three stars , but then when I read the epilogue I realized how much this quirky bunch of country people meant to each other and to Miles . He’s a character I’ll remember . Deserving of four stars.
I received a copy of this from Random House through NetGalley.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
[2.5 stars] I may end up in the minority for this opinion, but after sitting with it, I really didn't care for this. There are too many ideas in one book, many of which go nowhere or feel unintegrated with the rest of the novel. It didn't help that Miles was a completely unlikeable, insufferable narrator.
At its core, Country People is about an urban family who relocates to Vermont and quickly realises they're out of their depth. Miles has spent a decade chipping away at a PhD (with minimal success) while his wife rises as an acclaimed academic. There are some interesting discussions about community and acclimating to a new environment, but the plot kept taking different turns that had little semblance to the preceding sections.
Conflicts resolve themselves a little too cleanly (particularly the ending), and several plot arcs are left completely unaddressed (). I think Miles was intended to be a bit of a bumbling but charming narrator, but I found him incredibly unlikeable and selfish. The fantastical elements did nothing for me, and the abundance of flat secondary characters didn't embed the town with the vibrancy or life I anticipated.
There are funny moments in this, and I particularly liked Olive as a character, but this wasn't my favourite. It feels like a directionless, contrived story that tries to build suspense at the end, only to dive into two epilogues that resolve everything without a second thought.
Thank you to Random House for the ARC!
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At its core, Country People is about an urban family who relocates to Vermont and quickly realises they're out of their depth. Miles has spent a decade chipping away at a PhD (with minimal success) while his wife rises as an acclaimed academic. There are some interesting discussions about community and acclimating to a new environment, but the plot kept taking different turns that had little semblance to the preceding sections.
Conflicts resolve themselves a little too cleanly (particularly the ending), and several plot arcs are left completely unaddressed (). I think Miles was intended to be a bit of a bumbling but charming narrator, but I found him incredibly unlikeable and selfish. The fantastical elements did nothing for me, and the abundance of flat secondary characters didn't embed the town with the vibrancy or life I anticipated.
There are funny moments in this, and I particularly liked Olive as a character, but this wasn't my favourite. It feels like a directionless, contrived story that tries to build suspense at the end, only to dive into two epilogues that resolve everything without a second thought.
Thank you to Random House for the ARC!
Substack | Bookstagram | BookTok | BookTube | Bookshop.org Storefront | Libro.fm Bonus Offer
July 7, 2026
No one is likely to ask Daniel Mason, “Is Country People really about you?”
His effervescent new novel is about Miles Krzelewski, a perpetual graduate student who’s done little with his life but start and abandon 11 dissertations.
Mason has the opposite problem. He knocked off his bestselling debut novel, The Piano Tuner, in 2002 as he was working on a medical degree. Since then, he’s published several more terrific works of fiction — including, most recently, North Woods — and been a Pulitzer finalist, all while teaching and researching in Stanford University’s psychiatry department.
The good doctor seems positively allergic to idleness.
But you don’t need a psychiatry degree to see the connection between this funny novel and the lightly repressed enchantment that bubbles through even Mason’s most haunting books. Faeries of wit and mischief have always danced around his fiction, whether he’s pursuing a piano through the Burmese jungle or taking an ax to a twin sister.
In the pages of Country People, those whimsical sprites have been given free rein. This story of self-delusions, bizarre eccentrics, and absurd antics is narrated in an arch, long-suffering voice that brings out the comic flavor like salt on caramel. Think of it as a companion to Andrew Sean Greer’s Villa Coco. One comic novel this good feels lucky; two in the same summer feels like cheating.
When we meet Miles, 44, he’s been working on the first draft of his dissertation on Russian folktales for 14 years, and, let’s face it, the end is nowhere in sight. It’s not that he lacks the requisite intellectual rigor (in high school he taught himself Basque because so few people speak it), but he has the attention span of an erudite squirrel. His wife, meanwhile, is an academic superstar, who’s been offered a one-year position at a posh college in Vermont. So, as the novel begins, they load up their Italian dog and two children, say goodbye to San Francisco, and set off across the country.
Miles is sufficiently self-aware to appreciate the burden of his good fortune, which is stacked perilously high. After all, his wife is “a woman of....
You can read the rest of this review for free on Substack:
https://roncharles.substack.com/p/can...
His effervescent new novel is about Miles Krzelewski, a perpetual graduate student who’s done little with his life but start and abandon 11 dissertations.
Mason has the opposite problem. He knocked off his bestselling debut novel, The Piano Tuner, in 2002 as he was working on a medical degree. Since then, he’s published several more terrific works of fiction — including, most recently, North Woods — and been a Pulitzer finalist, all while teaching and researching in Stanford University’s psychiatry department.
The good doctor seems positively allergic to idleness.
But you don’t need a psychiatry degree to see the connection between this funny novel and the lightly repressed enchantment that bubbles through even Mason’s most haunting books. Faeries of wit and mischief have always danced around his fiction, whether he’s pursuing a piano through the Burmese jungle or taking an ax to a twin sister.
In the pages of Country People, those whimsical sprites have been given free rein. This story of self-delusions, bizarre eccentrics, and absurd antics is narrated in an arch, long-suffering voice that brings out the comic flavor like salt on caramel. Think of it as a companion to Andrew Sean Greer’s Villa Coco. One comic novel this good feels lucky; two in the same summer feels like cheating.
When we meet Miles, 44, he’s been working on the first draft of his dissertation on Russian folktales for 14 years, and, let’s face it, the end is nowhere in sight. It’s not that he lacks the requisite intellectual rigor (in high school he taught himself Basque because so few people speak it), but he has the attention span of an erudite squirrel. His wife, meanwhile, is an academic superstar, who’s been offered a one-year position at a posh college in Vermont. So, as the novel begins, they load up their Italian dog and two children, say goodbye to San Francisco, and set off across the country.
Miles is sufficiently self-aware to appreciate the burden of his good fortune, which is stacked perilously high. After all, his wife is “a woman of....
You can read the rest of this review for free on Substack:
https://roncharles.substack.com/p/can...
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.5-4! Have to think about it for a little while.
REVIEW TO FOLLOW!
One of my most anticipated literary fiction novels! I hear this has Russian folklore and quirky characters!?
A couple with their two children and a family dog leave California and head cross country to Vermont. The father, while trying to finish his dissertation on Russian folktales becomes distracted and fascinated with the small town and its interesting people. There is a lot of heart in this novel, love for family and community.
*side note: I adore when dogs (or cats) are featured on the covers.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publisher and the author, Daniel Mason for sending me this eARC.
Publication date: July 7, 2026
REVIEW TO FOLLOW!
One of my most anticipated literary fiction novels! I hear this has Russian folklore and quirky characters!?
A couple with their two children and a family dog leave California and head cross country to Vermont. The father, while trying to finish his dissertation on Russian folktales becomes distracted and fascinated with the small town and its interesting people. There is a lot of heart in this novel, love for family and community.
*side note: I adore when dogs (or cats) are featured on the covers.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publisher and the author, Daniel Mason for sending me this eARC.
Publication date: July 7, 2026
July 16, 2026
I don't know how Mason does it. He's a practicing psychiatrist (and on the faculty at Stanford, if I'm not mistaken) and has written several highly praised novels, no two of which are alike. The timing on this one is truly, for me, serendipitous. “Country People” is exactly the break from the world I needed. It was so calming to put myself in the hands of a writer who actually likes people, particularly eccentric ones, and treats them with respect. A writer who is capable of writing such a kind, joyous, laugh-out-loud book that I honestly wanted to reread it immediately I finished it.
“Country People” is a journey of self-discovery. A road trip, if you will. Kind of. Cross-country from California to the back roads and wooded trails of New England. Our hero is Miles Krzelewski. He’s smart, a creative storyteller (not always for the best) who adores his family, and is more than 12 years late on writing his doctoral dissertation on Russian folktales, which became the world of Tolstoy’s peasants, which changed into trains in Chekhov, to… well, many things.
And so, as in a fairy tale, the story begins: “The wife had been offered a one-year visiting professorship at a college in Vermont, and the husband was married to the wife.”
The husband is Miles himself, of course, and his wife (she is called “the wife” in the first chapter, as he is “the husband”) Kate. She's a renowned scholar of Blake and Milton, so gifted that, “Students told her every quarter that her lectures made them cry, made them believe in humanity again” (crying over Milton? OK, sure). And their precocious children, Wesley and Olive, and their dog Giuseppe. Together they all set out in a trusty Suburu to drive from California to Vermont, taking time along the way to visit all kinds of special places (like a Willa Cather museum, because what precocious child doesn't love Willa Cather?). In Vermont they will stay the home of economics professor with the Hogwartsian name Norbert Rumphius while he is away on sabbatical.
The family makes so many discoveries along the way! Gas stations with the most magical food displays!: What exotic flavors! What strange delectations! Raised in the land of the unprocessed and organic, attending public schools that maintained their own gardens, never had the children tasted of the Slurpee, the Twinkie, or the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker. Pringles they knew, but only at a distance… Who was this Sara Lee of such extraordinary industry? Or “Slim Jim,” and why were his meat sticks packaged in the same color scheme as Pennzoil?. There are even, should the adults wish to imbibe, wine coolers “in kid-friendly hues of pink and lime, or energy drinks with fascist fonts.”
Ah, healthy-eating, crunchy California, where even naming one’s children demands creativity and flare. Miles, the first-born, was named after Kate’s deceased younger brother. When the time came to name their daughter it was Miles’ turn. His first choice was Pelageia (“what Chekhov named his most big-hearted peasants”) but that wouldn’t do.
It had to be perfect; with “Krzelewski-Petrosian” hanging off the back, there wasn’t room for error. And this was at a time when the hip of Northern California had taken baby naming to contrarian peaks. Fanny, Grizzly, Spider. There was even a “Job” in Wesley’s preschool, pronounced—the beleaguered parents were quick to inform him—not like employment, but, rather, as in “the Book of.”
They settled on Olive.
The plan is that in Vermont Miles would watch the kids (who will be enrolled in the local school) and work on his dissertation (or perhaps not) and Kate would teach at the college.
“Country People” is the story of the Krzelewski-Petrosian family's introduction to rural south Vermont and their integration into the community. Among the country people they meet: Substitute third grade teacher and drama instructor Nausicaa Torres-Lakeman (highlights from her resume: directing a musical version of “Death Comes for the Archbishop” and an audience-participation production of “No Exit”); Hugh — “a burly man with a long ponytail beneath his Indiana Jones hat and a knife strapped to his belt” — who is the Greensbury Land Conservancy’s naturalist-leader and who makes up outrageous "facts" to questions he can't answer; town doctor, Anita Morgan (known everywhere as “I-Really-Shouldn’t-Tell-You-This Anita” because of her lack of discretion); Snowflake Bentley (a whole other story involving a massive compilation of humanity's idiocy); Coach Bjorn, manly skiing instructor and former Norwegian paratrooper who lost a foot rescuing hostages from Oseberg Oil Platform E (alas, he had his skis on when he parachuted onto the platform); and many others.
Among the locals too is Kate’s friend from grad school, a most prolific sociology professor named Miranda, author of such stirring works as “Can-Throwing Behaviors of Rural American Males,” “Little House in the Big Internet,” and “Community Threads: Tracing Social Change Through Clothing Labels.”
Problems come up, of course — Wesley’s night terrors and acting out, Olive’s on-again-off-again friendships at school, skiing accidents, anxiety that Katie’s multiple sclerosis might return, jealousy, temptation, car trouble, a missing child, Giuseppe's frantic scratching at the house floors. The family becomes full members of the town culture. Miles, for example, helps out at the local school, discovers a love of skiing. He finds himself joining others in the search for the cave with a tunnel that opened up to the legendary kingdom discovered below the earth’s surface, as described in the journals of one Jeremiah Wylkes .
“Country People” is a beguiling novel with memorable characters. And some of the funniest passes I’ve ever read. (I know: humor is completely subjective, so maybe I'm just embarrassing myself now.) Like the time Miles’ pharmacy made a mistake: “He had been prescribed clomipramine, but the pharmacy had filled clomiphene, for female infertility. Sure, he’d been puzzled by the instructions to ‘time intercourse with the expected time of ovulation’ —after all, wouldn’t doctors be recommending people with OCD not to time their intercourse?”
And: the Greensbury third grade's tradition of performing a Shakespeare play each year. “Each year there was suspense around which play would be selected, and each year it was A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Pressure began to build from the townspeople, for the love of God, to do another play. “So Mrs. Littlejohn put on Titus Andronicus, after which they didn’t nag her anymore.” "Midsummer Nights Dream" is produced, with several children simultaneously playing the same roles.
And this from a radio call-in show aired everyday at 2:00: “So… I’ve lived in the area for my whole life and must have driven past Naughty Naughty Discipline and Obedience hundreds of times, but it wasn’t until we were preparing the show that I realized it was a pet school.” (The show is called The Miscellaneous Minute, “or, as we like to say, the only Minute that’s actually an Hour," and each day's show would focus on something different — gardening, home repair, antiques, pets, pools and pool care, real estate. I thought immediately of Garrison Keillor kinds.)
In sum: If you (as I did) need a break from the mad state of the world, give yourself a treat. Read “Country People.”
My thanks to Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“Country People” is a journey of self-discovery. A road trip, if you will. Kind of. Cross-country from California to the back roads and wooded trails of New England. Our hero is Miles Krzelewski. He’s smart, a creative storyteller (not always for the best) who adores his family, and is more than 12 years late on writing his doctoral dissertation on Russian folktales, which became the world of Tolstoy’s peasants, which changed into trains in Chekhov, to… well, many things.
And so, as in a fairy tale, the story begins: “The wife had been offered a one-year visiting professorship at a college in Vermont, and the husband was married to the wife.”
The husband is Miles himself, of course, and his wife (she is called “the wife” in the first chapter, as he is “the husband”) Kate. She's a renowned scholar of Blake and Milton, so gifted that, “Students told her every quarter that her lectures made them cry, made them believe in humanity again” (crying over Milton? OK, sure). And their precocious children, Wesley and Olive, and their dog Giuseppe. Together they all set out in a trusty Suburu to drive from California to Vermont, taking time along the way to visit all kinds of special places (like a Willa Cather museum, because what precocious child doesn't love Willa Cather?). In Vermont they will stay the home of economics professor with the Hogwartsian name Norbert Rumphius while he is away on sabbatical.
The family makes so many discoveries along the way! Gas stations with the most magical food displays!: What exotic flavors! What strange delectations! Raised in the land of the unprocessed and organic, attending public schools that maintained their own gardens, never had the children tasted of the Slurpee, the Twinkie, or the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker. Pringles they knew, but only at a distance… Who was this Sara Lee of such extraordinary industry? Or “Slim Jim,” and why were his meat sticks packaged in the same color scheme as Pennzoil?. There are even, should the adults wish to imbibe, wine coolers “in kid-friendly hues of pink and lime, or energy drinks with fascist fonts.”
Ah, healthy-eating, crunchy California, where even naming one’s children demands creativity and flare. Miles, the first-born, was named after Kate’s deceased younger brother. When the time came to name their daughter it was Miles’ turn. His first choice was Pelageia (“what Chekhov named his most big-hearted peasants”) but that wouldn’t do.
It had to be perfect; with “Krzelewski-Petrosian” hanging off the back, there wasn’t room for error. And this was at a time when the hip of Northern California had taken baby naming to contrarian peaks. Fanny, Grizzly, Spider. There was even a “Job” in Wesley’s preschool, pronounced—the beleaguered parents were quick to inform him—not like employment, but, rather, as in “the Book of.”
They settled on Olive.
The plan is that in Vermont Miles would watch the kids (who will be enrolled in the local school) and work on his dissertation (or perhaps not) and Kate would teach at the college.
“Country People” is the story of the Krzelewski-Petrosian family's introduction to rural south Vermont and their integration into the community. Among the country people they meet: Substitute third grade teacher and drama instructor Nausicaa Torres-Lakeman (highlights from her resume: directing a musical version of “Death Comes for the Archbishop” and an audience-participation production of “No Exit”); Hugh — “a burly man with a long ponytail beneath his Indiana Jones hat and a knife strapped to his belt” — who is the Greensbury Land Conservancy’s naturalist-leader and who makes up outrageous "facts" to questions he can't answer; town doctor, Anita Morgan (known everywhere as “I-Really-Shouldn’t-Tell-You-This Anita” because of her lack of discretion); Snowflake Bentley (a whole other story involving a massive compilation of humanity's idiocy); Coach Bjorn, manly skiing instructor and former Norwegian paratrooper who lost a foot rescuing hostages from Oseberg Oil Platform E (alas, he had his skis on when he parachuted onto the platform); and many others.
Among the locals too is Kate’s friend from grad school, a most prolific sociology professor named Miranda, author of such stirring works as “Can-Throwing Behaviors of Rural American Males,” “Little House in the Big Internet,” and “Community Threads: Tracing Social Change Through Clothing Labels.”
Problems come up, of course — Wesley’s night terrors and acting out, Olive’s on-again-off-again friendships at school, skiing accidents, anxiety that Katie’s multiple sclerosis might return, jealousy, temptation, car trouble, a missing child, Giuseppe's frantic scratching at the house floors. The family becomes full members of the town culture. Miles, for example, helps out at the local school, discovers a love of skiing. He finds himself joining others in the search for the cave with a tunnel that opened up to the legendary kingdom discovered below the earth’s surface, as described in the journals of one Jeremiah Wylkes .
“Country People” is a beguiling novel with memorable characters. And some of the funniest passes I’ve ever read. (I know: humor is completely subjective, so maybe I'm just embarrassing myself now.) Like the time Miles’ pharmacy made a mistake: “He had been prescribed clomipramine, but the pharmacy had filled clomiphene, for female infertility. Sure, he’d been puzzled by the instructions to ‘time intercourse with the expected time of ovulation’ —after all, wouldn’t doctors be recommending people with OCD not to time their intercourse?”
And: the Greensbury third grade's tradition of performing a Shakespeare play each year. “Each year there was suspense around which play would be selected, and each year it was A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Pressure began to build from the townspeople, for the love of God, to do another play. “So Mrs. Littlejohn put on Titus Andronicus, after which they didn’t nag her anymore.” "Midsummer Nights Dream" is produced, with several children simultaneously playing the same roles.
And this from a radio call-in show aired everyday at 2:00: “So… I’ve lived in the area for my whole life and must have driven past Naughty Naughty Discipline and Obedience hundreds of times, but it wasn’t until we were preparing the show that I realized it was a pet school.” (The show is called The Miscellaneous Minute, “or, as we like to say, the only Minute that’s actually an Hour," and each day's show would focus on something different — gardening, home repair, antiques, pets, pools and pool care, real estate. I thought immediately of Garrison Keillor kinds.)
In sum: If you (as I did) need a break from the mad state of the world, give yourself a treat. Read “Country People.”
My thanks to Random House and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 14, 2026
3.75- 4
This one was trickier to rate, but it lands right in that 3.75 to 4-star range for me.
The book features a family of four moving across the country for the mother's new job, and we join them on their journey to rural Vermont. The father, who narrates the story, is in the midst of a multi-year process of writing his thesis on Tolstoy and rural life—a project that eventually transforms into Russian folklore and takes on various other shapes as the book progresses. Because of this, the narrative is filled with "stories within stories," blending Russian history, folklore, and the tales of the local townspeople.
There are plenty of ramblings in this one, but they are packed with kernels of humor, dry wit, sarcasm, and intelligence. The narrator dissects famous literary pieces, there's a wonky radio talk show thrown in the midst, and he explores the Jeremiah Wilkes Society, mixing these intellectual tangents with the day-to-day life of his family. He simply loves storytelling, especially when sharing tales with his children.
This is definitely a book that might require a second read to fully grasp everything it has to offer. While it starts with what feels like disjointed ramblings, I'm not sure if the flow actually improved as the story went on or if I just grew accustomed to the highly unique writing style (I suspect the latter!).
I quite liked how everything came together in the end. It features one of the oddest book endings I've encountered—it absolutely has its place in the story, but it further highlights the author's quirky, unique style.
**ARC (Thank you, Random House/NetGalley)
This one was trickier to rate, but it lands right in that 3.75 to 4-star range for me.
The book features a family of four moving across the country for the mother's new job, and we join them on their journey to rural Vermont. The father, who narrates the story, is in the midst of a multi-year process of writing his thesis on Tolstoy and rural life—a project that eventually transforms into Russian folklore and takes on various other shapes as the book progresses. Because of this, the narrative is filled with "stories within stories," blending Russian history, folklore, and the tales of the local townspeople.
There are plenty of ramblings in this one, but they are packed with kernels of humor, dry wit, sarcasm, and intelligence. The narrator dissects famous literary pieces, there's a wonky radio talk show thrown in the midst, and he explores the Jeremiah Wilkes Society, mixing these intellectual tangents with the day-to-day life of his family. He simply loves storytelling, especially when sharing tales with his children.
This is definitely a book that might require a second read to fully grasp everything it has to offer. While it starts with what feels like disjointed ramblings, I'm not sure if the flow actually improved as the story went on or if I just grew accustomed to the highly unique writing style (I suspect the latter!).
I quite liked how everything came together in the end. It features one of the oddest book endings I've encountered—it absolutely has its place in the story, but it further highlights the author's quirky, unique style.
**ARC (Thank you, Random House/NetGalley)
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March 6, 2026A charming, funny, exhilarating Vermont adventure. Miles, Kate, their two young children, and their dog move to Vermont for her job. Miles is 12 years into a Phd about Russian folk tales but he keeps changing his mind about what the focus should be and he (and Kate) hopes the change of scene might help him settle. But the Vermont woods, and then the Vermont snow, and his daughter's school play, and the host of country people he meets, and the strange hollow earth society, and more, mean that Miles and his butterfly mind can do anything but settle.
I loved North Woods, Mason's previous novel, and I can see the crossover: great writing, especially about nature and a lot of characters (plus I appreciated the Easter eggs for those who have read North Woods), but this is in no way a repeat. And as an author who also doesn't like to repeat novels, I really respect that.
I loved North Woods, Mason's previous novel, and I can see the crossover: great writing, especially about nature and a lot of characters (plus I appreciated the Easter eggs for those who have read North Woods), but this is in no way a repeat. And as an author who also doesn't like to repeat novels, I really respect that.
unable-to-finish
July 8, 2026dnf after 4 hours of audio. I know I'm am an outlier here but I'm finding Miles Krzelewski, the narrator and transplanted Vermont dad, increasingly annoying. I don't want to spend any more time with him.
January 22, 2026
This is a funny book, and I don’t always love funny, but what I loved the most here was the narration. We the reader are told things the characters don’t know and the narration does a bit of 4th wall breaking, or whatever the book equivalent of that is. We also get transcripts from a radio call in show that brilliantly captures the essence of someone and some place in just a single interaction. Ya know, when I finished this book I wasn’t sure if I loved it, but the more I think about it in order to share something about it, I’m realizing how much I really did love this.
Miles goes from wondering is it possible to get a ride from someone in this town to worrying about whom he should ask as to not hurt others’ feelings. Mason is brilliantly helping Miles, and us, realize that we don’t need the answer to all of life’s mysteries, but trying alone can be rewarding in unexpected ways. This is lighter and less weird than North Woods, but it offers the reader much to smile about when it could have dipped into eye roll territory. Well done, again, Daniel Mason.
Miles goes from wondering is it possible to get a ride from someone in this town to worrying about whom he should ask as to not hurt others’ feelings. Mason is brilliantly helping Miles, and us, realize that we don’t need the answer to all of life’s mysteries, but trying alone can be rewarding in unexpected ways. This is lighter and less weird than North Woods, but it offers the reader much to smile about when it could have dipped into eye roll territory. Well done, again, Daniel Mason.
July 7, 2026
Mason presents a wacky fish-out-of-water story in his latest novel about a California family that relocates to Vermont. Not much enlivens a tale of this type like colorful townsfolk, and this book is chock-a-block with delightful characters. (And I do mean characters.) There are tons of laugh out loud moments within the pages. Popping up periodically is the script from a hilarious radio call-in show that had me chortling. I hated to see the good times come to an end.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for sharing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for sharing.
December 30, 2025
Oh my. This was wonderful. Mason creates a labyrinthian world, a cast of players connected in so many ways, like tunnels that tangle and weave under the earth.
Miles and Kate, with children in tow, traverse from California to the rural, wild outskirts of Vermont with Kate, a professor of English literature, on assignment at the local University. As Miles drags his feet on his own ambitions he begins to encounter the seemingly simple “country folk,” only to find that these individuals are far more complex and intriguing than he originally assumed. He finds himself entranced with their lifestyles and becomes totally engrossed in a closely held, if not strange, theory of the locals.
Throughout the novel we are introduced to mysterious stories as told through the lense of a rural radio call-in talk show where lighthearted banter, humor and wit abound. Each caller’s story adds drops to the overall bucket of Mason’s world-building and serve as a creative break from the overall narrative, while still holding relevancy (and oh my goodness does it pay off in the end).
In this novel readers feel the push and pull between logic and magical thinking, the known and unknown, and the notion that maybe these ideas don’t exist in binaries after all.
Received as an ARC from NetGalley.
Miles and Kate, with children in tow, traverse from California to the rural, wild outskirts of Vermont with Kate, a professor of English literature, on assignment at the local University. As Miles drags his feet on his own ambitions he begins to encounter the seemingly simple “country folk,” only to find that these individuals are far more complex and intriguing than he originally assumed. He finds himself entranced with their lifestyles and becomes totally engrossed in a closely held, if not strange, theory of the locals.
Throughout the novel we are introduced to mysterious stories as told through the lense of a rural radio call-in talk show where lighthearted banter, humor and wit abound. Each caller’s story adds drops to the overall bucket of Mason’s world-building and serve as a creative break from the overall narrative, while still holding relevancy (and oh my goodness does it pay off in the end).
In this novel readers feel the push and pull between logic and magical thinking, the known and unknown, and the notion that maybe these ideas don’t exist in binaries after all.
Received as an ARC from NetGalley.
January 28, 2026
"Country people. It does seem hard to write about the topic when you haven’t lived in the country yourself.”
This is teetering more towards four stars, simply because it's brilliantly written, but I'm also just not smart enough to understand the complexity of it, so I have to give it a very personal three stars. 3.75 if Goodreads would hire an intern to make half stars already.
There are comparisons between Tolstoy and scything for apples, naming your kids Pelageia (Chekhov), comparisons between being a biochemist or a much loved college professor teaching classic literature, and many names and locations I'm just not witty or wise enough to understand.
Miles and Kate move to Virginia from California (Redwood City to be exact, close to Stanford where Daniel Mason is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, because of course), with their two kids, who seem to be nine and five? Or is it 25 and 20? Cause they're smarter than me in many parts of this book. They move from the city life to a rural life, and there are parts of this book that is a love letter to the different expanses of American life. How beautiful it can be, when humans are not being destructive.
Yes, I did laugh, and I actually understood what this meant:
"What You Made Me Do’: Fyodor (Dostoyevsky) and Taylor (Swift).” Cause who doesn't know a Swiftie lyric when they see it?
Discussions of processed foods versus farm raised:
"Raised in the land of the unprocessed and organic, attending public schools that maintained their own gardens, never had the children tasted of the Slurpee, the Twinkie, or the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker. Pringles they knew, but only at a distance."
I know there's going to be a nice group of people who will absolutely love this book, all who are much wiser than me. For now, I will admit my middle aged self just couldn't appreciate it as much as I should have.
This is teetering more towards four stars, simply because it's brilliantly written, but I'm also just not smart enough to understand the complexity of it, so I have to give it a very personal three stars. 3.75 if Goodreads would hire an intern to make half stars already.
There are comparisons between Tolstoy and scything for apples, naming your kids Pelageia (Chekhov), comparisons between being a biochemist or a much loved college professor teaching classic literature, and many names and locations I'm just not witty or wise enough to understand.
Miles and Kate move to Virginia from California (Redwood City to be exact, close to Stanford where Daniel Mason is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, because of course), with their two kids, who seem to be nine and five? Or is it 25 and 20? Cause they're smarter than me in many parts of this book. They move from the city life to a rural life, and there are parts of this book that is a love letter to the different expanses of American life. How beautiful it can be, when humans are not being destructive.
Yes, I did laugh, and I actually understood what this meant:
"What You Made Me Do’: Fyodor (Dostoyevsky) and Taylor (Swift).” Cause who doesn't know a Swiftie lyric when they see it?
Discussions of processed foods versus farm raised:
"Raised in the land of the unprocessed and organic, attending public schools that maintained their own gardens, never had the children tasted of the Slurpee, the Twinkie, or the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker. Pringles they knew, but only at a distance."
I know there's going to be a nice group of people who will absolutely love this book, all who are much wiser than me. For now, I will admit my middle aged self just couldn't appreciate it as much as I should have.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
PUBLISH DATE: July 7, 2026
Country People by Daniel Mason
DNF
I gave this book several chances over the past six months, hoping it would eventually click with me, but it never did. I did not like the writing style at all, it felt simple yet oddly choppy and the third person narration kept me from connecting with the story. Even after multiple attempts, I found myself dreading picking it back up instead of looking forward to reading.
PUBLISH DATE: July 7, 2026
BOOK TITLE: Country People
AUTHOR: Daniel Mason
PUBLISHER: Random House
FORMAT: ebook
PAGES: 336
I received a complimentary digital ARC [Advanced Readers Copy] of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. As always, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Country People by Daniel Mason
DNF
I gave this book several chances over the past six months, hoping it would eventually click with me, but it never did. I did not like the writing style at all, it felt simple yet oddly choppy and the third person narration kept me from connecting with the story. Even after multiple attempts, I found myself dreading picking it back up instead of looking forward to reading.
PUBLISH DATE: July 7, 2026
BOOK TITLE: Country People
AUTHOR: Daniel Mason
PUBLISHER: Random House
FORMAT: ebook
PAGES: 336
I received a complimentary digital ARC [Advanced Readers Copy] of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. As always, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
July 14, 2026
Daniel Mason is one of my favorite writers and has been since his collection of stories, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth and cemented with his last novel, North Woods. Here in Country People, he has created a new world for his characters to live in and a wry narrator, Miles Krzelewski.
to be continued…
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.
to be continued…
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.
July 18, 2026
Floundering Far from the North Woods
While I hold Daniel Mason’s "North Woods" in high regard, "Country People" fell significantly short of my expectations. Where "North Woods" felt like a tightly woven, purposeful tapestry, "Country People" suffers from a deeply meandering narrative. The novel introduces a cast of vibrant, potential-filled characters who ultimately function as ornamental set dressing rather than active drivers of the plot.
This aimlessness is embodied by the protagonist, Miles. His fourteen-year struggle to complete a Ph.D. dissertation on topics ranging from Tolstoy’s peasants to Russian folktales serves as a metaphor for his own distractibility, but it makes for a frustrating reading experience. Mason offers flashes of wit, but these are frequently buried under excessive, unresolved tangents. Similarly, the comedic radio program excerpts intended to add texture ultimately fail to land, distracting rather than adding depth.
Even the epilogues, which aim to provide closure, arrive too late to redeem the pacing issues. My attempt to salvage the experience by switching to the audiobook was also unsuccessful; the narrator’s overly peppy delivery, meant to evoke the book's whimsy, felt over-the-top, jarringly reminiscent of a children’s television host. As this was my most anticipated book of the year, it is a major letdown. It lacks the structural magic that made Mason’s previous work so memorable. Readers who enjoy 'slice-of-life' character studies might find value here, but those seeking the enchantment of Mason’s previous work will likely be disappointed.
Take me back to the North Woods!
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #CountryPeople #NetGalley
While I hold Daniel Mason’s "North Woods" in high regard, "Country People" fell significantly short of my expectations. Where "North Woods" felt like a tightly woven, purposeful tapestry, "Country People" suffers from a deeply meandering narrative. The novel introduces a cast of vibrant, potential-filled characters who ultimately function as ornamental set dressing rather than active drivers of the plot.
This aimlessness is embodied by the protagonist, Miles. His fourteen-year struggle to complete a Ph.D. dissertation on topics ranging from Tolstoy’s peasants to Russian folktales serves as a metaphor for his own distractibility, but it makes for a frustrating reading experience. Mason offers flashes of wit, but these are frequently buried under excessive, unresolved tangents. Similarly, the comedic radio program excerpts intended to add texture ultimately fail to land, distracting rather than adding depth.
Even the epilogues, which aim to provide closure, arrive too late to redeem the pacing issues. My attempt to salvage the experience by switching to the audiobook was also unsuccessful; the narrator’s overly peppy delivery, meant to evoke the book's whimsy, felt over-the-top, jarringly reminiscent of a children’s television host. As this was my most anticipated book of the year, it is a major letdown. It lacks the structural magic that made Mason’s previous work so memorable. Readers who enjoy 'slice-of-life' character studies might find value here, but those seeking the enchantment of Mason’s previous work will likely be disappointed.
Take me back to the North Woods!
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #CountryPeople #NetGalley
Review of advance copy
I have read several of Daniel Mason’s novels and think he is an extremely talented author. He has consistently delivered, particularly with his last novel, North Woods, which earned an enthusiastic five star rating from me. Unfortunately, I found Country People somewhat disappointing. It’s a comic novel and the humor is hit or miss, at times clever, but at times either silly or bordering on the absurd. The novel takes place in Vermont and, living in Boston, I love a New England -based novel. In Massachusetts we often think of Vermont as our eccentric cousin and, before any feathers are ruffled, I mean that in a most positive and affectionate way. Mason plays up the perceived eccentricity of rural America and fills his book with a motley group of odd characters and an increasingly absurd storyline. It’s mostly all fun, and I think many readers will enjoy it. Sadly, it didn’t totally work for me. There’s a lot going on, a little too much, although I suspect that was the intention and part of the comic element. I felt that the real strength of the novel, and where Mason excels, is in his depiction of the transplanted family and their adjustment from city life to life in a small rural college town. All in all, despite its flaws, I would recommend this novel. Mason is always worth reading.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth & Random
Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth & Random
July 15, 2026
The academic novel meets Green Acres.
Mason is a fine stylist; unfortunately this one is a very well written nothing burger. Kate is a typical self-absorbed academic; her husband, Miles, has prolonged adolescence into his mid-forties. He is mostly just annoying. Miles is on his eleventh dissertation topic (and third director, I think). Having warmed a seat on a university graduate council for twenty plus years (a get out of purgatory free card, if there ever was one), I can say with certainty that Miles would have been kicked out of his program long ago at any halfway decent university.
Some of the supporting cast is interesting. Bentley is a stitch; I have met less extreme versions of him. And Nausicaä is a blast.
Dickens was able to get a lot of mileage out of thin plots through great minor characters; Mason has failed to do so. This could have been a much better book. It isn't.
Mason is a fine stylist; unfortunately this one is a very well written nothing burger. Kate is a typical self-absorbed academic; her husband, Miles, has prolonged adolescence into his mid-forties. He is mostly just annoying. Miles is on his eleventh dissertation topic (and third director, I think). Having warmed a seat on a university graduate council for twenty plus years (a get out of purgatory free card, if there ever was one), I can say with certainty that Miles would have been kicked out of his program long ago at any halfway decent university.
Some of the supporting cast is interesting. Bentley is a stitch; I have met less extreme versions of him. And Nausicaä is a blast.
Dickens was able to get a lot of mileage out of thin plots through great minor characters; Mason has failed to do so. This could have been a much better book. It isn't.
July 11, 2026
laugh out loud reading
I loved all the eccentric characters, especially Miles.
Witty and engrossing. Wanted to keep reading into the night and found pockets of time to read during the day.
I loved all the eccentric characters, especially Miles.
Witty and engrossing. Wanted to keep reading into the night and found pockets of time to read during the day.
January 9, 2026
I loved this.
Miles and Kate, two kids, and dog are off to Vermont. Which isn't too far off from that other place in the woods. Kate has just taken a visiting professorship and Miles is working on his PhD in Russian folklore.
That's how we begin. We get a house with a personality. A wide range of neighbors with different backgrounds and stories. An adventurous dog. Kids with their own big personalities. An interesting radio show. And a mystery about a man and his thoughts of the world that is slowly explored by this cast of characters.
This doesn't come out till July 14th ( thank you
@randomhousebooks) but l'm gonna need another book with another neighboring state.
This one is definitely North Woods adjacent.
I kind of devoured this.
People are in for a treat here!
Miles and Kate, two kids, and dog are off to Vermont. Which isn't too far off from that other place in the woods. Kate has just taken a visiting professorship and Miles is working on his PhD in Russian folklore.
That's how we begin. We get a house with a personality. A wide range of neighbors with different backgrounds and stories. An adventurous dog. Kids with their own big personalities. An interesting radio show. And a mystery about a man and his thoughts of the world that is slowly explored by this cast of characters.
This doesn't come out till July 14th ( thank you
@randomhousebooks) but l'm gonna need another book with another neighboring state.
This one is definitely North Woods adjacent.
I kind of devoured this.
People are in for a treat here!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Loved the writing style and loved the first 70% of the book. Then it was just trying to do too many things at once, then it just ended.
July 17, 2026
Miles and Kate arrive in Vermont from California with two children, a dog named Giuseppe bred for truffle hunting, and dreams built on Google Earth photographs. Zucchini piles up on every porch, gas station snacks dazzle young eyes, and swimming holes swallow whole afternoons. Underneath all that comedy, old legends about a vanished farm called Windmaker wait patiently as a root system, ready to surface.
Giuseppe digs with more purpose than his owners realize. A hound built for unearthing buried secrets long before the family understands the ground keeps a story of its own. Miles, an academic famous for switching dissertation topics the way farmers rotate crops, discovers a subject worth staying with planted in the soil.
Kate carries an illness through the pages with quiet steadiness, and that steadiness gives every domestic scene real ballast against the family's flights of comic panic.
Mason opens with a fairy tale about a fisherman chasing a fox turned maiden, and folk legend keeps threading through every chapter after, so the book reads part comedy of rural transplant, part myth about what grows beneath American soil when people stop looking down.
Every anecdote about ice cream punch cards or Slurpee flavors plants a small seed, and Mason lets those seeds sprout slowly until readers realize the corn stalks around them have grown taller than the sky allows for an ordinary summer.
A family that started sunburned, skeptical, and overloaded with free zucchini has taken root in ground far stranger than any real estate listing promised. Country People turns out to be a tale about transplantation in every sense, roots pulled from dry California hills and pressed into wet Vermont clay to test what survives such a move intact.
This book won me over before the plot found its footing, through comic detail too specific to invent, a career quiz recommending schoolteacher, then graduate school, based on a question about ruling with an iron fist.
Mason's domestic chaos is written with a diagnostician's eye for symptom and cause, cataloguing Basque phrases, potholder looms, and renamed college courses, until trust between reader and page grows solid.
Comic density this thick inevitably crowds out breathing room, like a waiting room stuffed past capacity on flu season. Beneath every gag sits genuine tenderness toward flawed, striving people doing their best in unfamiliar territory.
Family history plays out like an old condition, dormant for years until circumstance triggers a flare. Kate carries this literally in her body, Miles carries it emotionally, a man diagnosed early with what the text calls Slight Disappointment, managed daily with hope and denial in equal doses.
Families that relocate for opportunity, carry old wounds into new zip codes, and discover scenery changes far quicker than temperament. Suburban flight, remote work, rural gentrification, these headlines keep the fable freshly diagnosed, far from dusty.
Daniel Mason, a Stanford psychiatrist moonlighting as novelist. Raised in Palo Alto, he studied biology at Harvard, chased malaria research through Bangkok jungles, then drafted his debut, The Piano Tuner, during medical school, later adapted into opera. Between clinic shifts came A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and North Woods (the only other book of his I've read, and loathed). This book is fun to read but doesn't amaze like the treatment of this theme by Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk, or S.J. Perelman.
❤️ 🇮🇱
Giuseppe digs with more purpose than his owners realize. A hound built for unearthing buried secrets long before the family understands the ground keeps a story of its own. Miles, an academic famous for switching dissertation topics the way farmers rotate crops, discovers a subject worth staying with planted in the soil.
Kate carries an illness through the pages with quiet steadiness, and that steadiness gives every domestic scene real ballast against the family's flights of comic panic.
Mason opens with a fairy tale about a fisherman chasing a fox turned maiden, and folk legend keeps threading through every chapter after, so the book reads part comedy of rural transplant, part myth about what grows beneath American soil when people stop looking down.
Every anecdote about ice cream punch cards or Slurpee flavors plants a small seed, and Mason lets those seeds sprout slowly until readers realize the corn stalks around them have grown taller than the sky allows for an ordinary summer.
A family that started sunburned, skeptical, and overloaded with free zucchini has taken root in ground far stranger than any real estate listing promised. Country People turns out to be a tale about transplantation in every sense, roots pulled from dry California hills and pressed into wet Vermont clay to test what survives such a move intact.
This book won me over before the plot found its footing, through comic detail too specific to invent, a career quiz recommending schoolteacher, then graduate school, based on a question about ruling with an iron fist.
Mason's domestic chaos is written with a diagnostician's eye for symptom and cause, cataloguing Basque phrases, potholder looms, and renamed college courses, until trust between reader and page grows solid.
Comic density this thick inevitably crowds out breathing room, like a waiting room stuffed past capacity on flu season. Beneath every gag sits genuine tenderness toward flawed, striving people doing their best in unfamiliar territory.
Family history plays out like an old condition, dormant for years until circumstance triggers a flare. Kate carries this literally in her body, Miles carries it emotionally, a man diagnosed early with what the text calls Slight Disappointment, managed daily with hope and denial in equal doses.
Families that relocate for opportunity, carry old wounds into new zip codes, and discover scenery changes far quicker than temperament. Suburban flight, remote work, rural gentrification, these headlines keep the fable freshly diagnosed, far from dusty.
Daniel Mason, a Stanford psychiatrist moonlighting as novelist. Raised in Palo Alto, he studied biology at Harvard, chased malaria research through Bangkok jungles, then drafted his debut, The Piano Tuner, during medical school, later adapted into opera. Between clinic shifts came A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and North Woods (the only other book of his I've read, and loathed). This book is fun to read but doesn't amaze like the treatment of this theme by Shirley Jackson, Rachel Cusk, or S.J. Perelman.
❤️ 🇮🇱
July 7, 2026
Daniel Mason has once again crafted a novel that is both intellectually engaging and emotionally satisfying. Country People is beautifully written, filled with memorable characters, and touched with just the right amount of magic.
He has a remarkable ability to tell stories that quietly draw you in until you suddenly realize you're completely immersed in the lives of his characters. His novels never feel rushed or overly dramatic. Instead, they unfold with a confidence and grace that makes every page feel purposeful.
One of Mason's greatest strengths is his characterization. The people who inhabit this novel are wonderfully imperfect. They make mistakes, wrestle with difficult choices, and often surprise both themselves and the reader. They're the kind of characters who feel authentic because they aren't idealized. Their flaws make them more relatable, and I found myself invested in their lives from beginning to end.
I also continue to be impressed by the way Mason incorporates elements of magical realism into his stories. Rather than feeling jarring or fantastical for the sake of being different, these moments emerge naturally from the narrative, blending seamlessly with the more grounded aspects of the plot. The result is a world that feels both familiar and slightly enchanted, where the extraordinary exists just beneath the surface of everyday life. It's a delicate balance, and Mason handles it beautifully.
As always, the writing itself is exceptional. Mason has a lyrical style that paints vivid images without ever becoming overly ornate. His descriptions of people and place are rich and evocative, creating an atmosphere that completely envelops the reader. There were countless passages that made me slow down simply to appreciate how beautifully they were written.
Beyond its elegant prose, Country People is a deeply human story. It's about relationships, resilience, and the complicated ways our lives become intertwined with one another and with the places we call home. Even when the story takes unexpected turns, it remains grounded in genuine emotion, which makes every triumph and heartbreak feel earned.
He has a remarkable ability to tell stories that quietly draw you in until you suddenly realize you're completely immersed in the lives of his characters. His novels never feel rushed or overly dramatic. Instead, they unfold with a confidence and grace that makes every page feel purposeful.
One of Mason's greatest strengths is his characterization. The people who inhabit this novel are wonderfully imperfect. They make mistakes, wrestle with difficult choices, and often surprise both themselves and the reader. They're the kind of characters who feel authentic because they aren't idealized. Their flaws make them more relatable, and I found myself invested in their lives from beginning to end.
I also continue to be impressed by the way Mason incorporates elements of magical realism into his stories. Rather than feeling jarring or fantastical for the sake of being different, these moments emerge naturally from the narrative, blending seamlessly with the more grounded aspects of the plot. The result is a world that feels both familiar and slightly enchanted, where the extraordinary exists just beneath the surface of everyday life. It's a delicate balance, and Mason handles it beautifully.
As always, the writing itself is exceptional. Mason has a lyrical style that paints vivid images without ever becoming overly ornate. His descriptions of people and place are rich and evocative, creating an atmosphere that completely envelops the reader. There were countless passages that made me slow down simply to appreciate how beautifully they were written.
Beyond its elegant prose, Country People is a deeply human story. It's about relationships, resilience, and the complicated ways our lives become intertwined with one another and with the places we call home. Even when the story takes unexpected turns, it remains grounded in genuine emotion, which makes every triumph and heartbreak feel earned.
July 12, 2026
it might be best to say Country People is an enchanting novel. It’s a book where nothing really happens and yet I was under its spell the entire time.
I might be biased because Mason’s writing is not only good, but also appeals to my personal aesthetic sensibility. There is something impressionist in the way Mason populates this novel with eccentric characters, with brush strokes that blend together, a Jungian sum that makes the book feel truly alive. The economy of language through which Mason writes characters is not only impressionist, but also impressive.
And the book is just fun. There is no grand “problem” our main character, Miles, is trying to overcome, but rather all the little problems that litter our day-to-day. And yet there is a depth, something larger than we can at first see, to Mason’s deftly crafted story of marital and parental strife, of a man lost in the sea of choice, of time, a depth that resonates deeply with the ideas at the heart of this book, a cavern that echoes sonorously back, “Read this book.”
I might be biased because Mason’s writing is not only good, but also appeals to my personal aesthetic sensibility. There is something impressionist in the way Mason populates this novel with eccentric characters, with brush strokes that blend together, a Jungian sum that makes the book feel truly alive. The economy of language through which Mason writes characters is not only impressionist, but also impressive.
And the book is just fun. There is no grand “problem” our main character, Miles, is trying to overcome, but rather all the little problems that litter our day-to-day. And yet there is a depth, something larger than we can at first see, to Mason’s deftly crafted story of marital and parental strife, of a man lost in the sea of choice, of time, a depth that resonates deeply with the ideas at the heart of this book, a cavern that echoes sonorously back, “Read this book.”
July 16, 2026
Well this was just a delight. I may be the last person not to have read North Woods so had no preconceptions about Mason's writing - and surprise, I really like it! This is somewhat loosely plotted, but really a slice of life and character study of Vermont and Vermonters. There are chapters interspersed that are transcripts of a local radio show - which reminded me very nostalgically of New Hampshire's "Pie in the sky" radio of my childhood (this was extra good in the audio version I also listened to). The characters our family encounters are a rich tapestry of oddballs (sort of a Stars Hollow of Vermont). I loved the mix of humor and at times lovely descriptions of the area (e.g. skiing includes the natural world and also our hero's failures to keep up with his family). As a New Englander, I feel deeply seen and entertained, and now have fresh motivation to read North Woods.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!
January 23, 2026
Started off very strong for me - a family of 5 (mom, dad, son, daughter, dog) move from a Northern California college town to a Southern Vermont college town and a bit of culture shock ensues. Each of our characters is charming and it’s certainly fun (often funny) reading about them finding their way in a new environment. Daniel Mason is a wonderful writer and his descriptions of rural living are great - it often had me reminiscing on my college days in Western Massachusetts. All of that said, the book does drag a bit in the middle, but picks back up by the end. I also think we could’ve gone a bit deeper with each character or honestly just going deeper with our main narrator (the dad) would’ve been enough. Overall I enjoyed it!
You don’t have to have read North Woods to enjoy Country People but Mason drops a couple of fun easter eggs in Country People for those of us who’ve read North Woods.
Thanks to PRH for the advanced copy - such an honor to get to read Country People before its publication this July.
You don’t have to have read North Woods to enjoy Country People but Mason drops a couple of fun easter eggs in Country People for those of us who’ve read North Woods.
Thanks to PRH for the advanced copy - such an honor to get to read Country People before its publication this July.
July 16, 2026
Daniel Mason's last book, "North Woods" was absolutely extraordinary so I was very excited when the publisher offered me the chance to read an advanced copy of his latest novel, "Country People." This five star read did not disappoint! Mason's well-developed characters are both hilarious and deeply moving, and are completely relatable. The author could teach a masterclass on immersive prose and I fell headfirst into life in rural Vermont as if I were actually there. The plot was completely unpredictable but all the different aspects of the story flowed together beautifully. Though it is a literary, cerebral read, I think it is still a book that is accessible to all adult reading levels and perfect for mainstream readership. It is full of discussion-worthy topics, especially for discerning book clubs. Mason's lovable, quirky characters are John Irving-esque and I think fans of Fredrik Backman will enjoy this one as well. This book isn't just entertaining, it is so joyful that you will never want it to end.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this captivating book. Five stars!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this captivating book. Five stars!
July 16, 2026
daniel mason is incredible. i loved this book.
July 11, 2026
I adored this. It took things that are so familiar to me about New England that I take them for granted, and made them appear strange. I laughed many times. I related to Miles’s journey away from academia to accepting his true self. I often get very sad reading stories about children but this delighted me. It is 4.5 rounded up because the Goodreads rating is too low.
July 10, 2026
I've been reading this most of the day and I just had to put it down. I tried but this author is not for me. I don't think the story is bad but I couldn't connect with the characters. The writing was a bit choppy so I couldn't stay focused. Maybe if you enjoyed the authors previous books you will still enjoy this one.
July 14, 2026
Absolutely hilarious!
This book is just, WOW. Indescribably witty, brilliantly written. Warm and tender and wonderful. You'll also laugh yourself silly, and who among us doesn't need a good laugh right now? I can't think of another book I've enjoyed as much.
This book is just, WOW. Indescribably witty, brilliantly written. Warm and tender and wonderful. You'll also laugh yourself silly, and who among us doesn't need a good laugh right now? I can't think of another book I've enjoyed as much.
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