𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆

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North Woods is almost a collection of short stories; shining spotlights onto a selection of lives lived in and around one house in the remote Western Massachusetts countryside.

And in this seemingly simple premise, Daniel Mason has packed a punch of such profundity that at times it took my breath away.

Beginning in the early days of colonial settlement and travelling through the centuries up to the present day, the reader accompanies men, women, beetles, squirrels and spores, among other things. Through these characters lives' Mason explores ideas as wide ranging as the cycles of nature, love and desire, crimes of passion, loneliness, mental health, ghosts and the occult. And overarching all of this are ideas of separateness and connectedness. A sense of both atrophy and also continuity and eternalness. 

I started this novel feeling a sense of disconnection - the frequently changing perspectives were jarring and I struggled to settle in, but I put my trust in the process and was rewarded for my efforts. As this story develops, and we travel through time in this rural New England home, the strands of each story weave together and the sense of a history - a natural, a personal and a national one - coalesces.

An incredible read, and one I'm likely to return to, as it is ripe for drawing out further connections and deeper meaning.