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Ashland
A deeply moving family story unfolding in richly evocative prose and a poetic portrayal of a town in decline during the final decades of the American century, Ashland is a book of metamorphoses—of the dance between permanence and transformation.
In Ashland, New Hampshire, Carolyn, born of a teenage pregnancy, grows up alongside her mother Ellie, her aunt Jennie, and her cousins. Ashland is the type of place that most people plan to leave, but few do. Beauty can be found in small things—the trees in the wind, the sky’s particular shade of blue, a swim in the river, love, and family. But life can often be unforgiving and solace hard to come by. Carolyn reconciles the losses in her own life with an education at Plymouth State, the local university, and then by capturing in words her world and the people who inhabit it.
Recalling the novels of Richard Russo, Paul Harding, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout, Ashland is a novel of debut great intensity and poetry told in the voices of many vivid characters and, through them, in the voice of Ashland itself.
In Ashland, New Hampshire, Carolyn, born of a teenage pregnancy, grows up alongside her mother Ellie, her aunt Jennie, and her cousins. Ashland is the type of place that most people plan to leave, but few do. Beauty can be found in small things—the trees in the wind, the sky’s particular shade of blue, a swim in the river, love, and family. But life can often be unforgiving and solace hard to come by. Carolyn reconciles the losses in her own life with an education at Plymouth State, the local university, and then by capturing in words her world and the people who inhabit it.
Recalling the novels of Richard Russo, Paul Harding, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout, Ashland is a novel of debut great intensity and poetry told in the voices of many vivid characters and, through them, in the voice of Ashland itself.
- GenresFiction
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 16, 2025
Above all this is a novel about family bonds, bonds between sisters, mothers and daughters, cousins and their love for one another no matter what. It’s about strength during difficult times . A coming of age story, an ode to the power of reading and writing.
“To me, my afternoons reading, with my father's mother in town sometimes, beside mama a lot, with Edith, the afternoons reading with these women I trust completely, is as close as I could ever get to the other side of the problem of living, and that's writing. You watch the stories unfold. Reading is something we do, a spiritual exercise.”
“To me, well, writing just means saving stuff, socking it away, like having a bank account of precious observations and memories. It means unpacking silences, that most of all, and seeing what silences are made of. It means teasing the individual threads apart-deconstructing, wrecking, destroying.”
It’s about bonds to a place, Ashland, New Hampshire, a small town where people are connected by or proximity, but also by friendship, caring, and love. The novel moves around in time from 1980’s to 1990’s, over the years with multiple first person narrators, the main one being Carolyn. I love introspective quiet stories, but this one felt a bit claustrophobic at times being inside the minds of these characters, void of any dialog. Having said that, it’s a moving story depicting a gamut of life altering experiences - teenage pregnancy, abandonment, divorce , drug addiction , suicide - all tempered by love for one another.
I received a copy of this book from Europa Editions through Edelweiss .
“To me, my afternoons reading, with my father's mother in town sometimes, beside mama a lot, with Edith, the afternoons reading with these women I trust completely, is as close as I could ever get to the other side of the problem of living, and that's writing. You watch the stories unfold. Reading is something we do, a spiritual exercise.”
“To me, well, writing just means saving stuff, socking it away, like having a bank account of precious observations and memories. It means unpacking silences, that most of all, and seeing what silences are made of. It means teasing the individual threads apart-deconstructing, wrecking, destroying.”
It’s about bonds to a place, Ashland, New Hampshire, a small town where people are connected by or proximity, but also by friendship, caring, and love. The novel moves around in time from 1980’s to 1990’s, over the years with multiple first person narrators, the main one being Carolyn. I love introspective quiet stories, but this one felt a bit claustrophobic at times being inside the minds of these characters, void of any dialog. Having said that, it’s a moving story depicting a gamut of life altering experiences - teenage pregnancy, abandonment, divorce , drug addiction , suicide - all tempered by love for one another.
I received a copy of this book from Europa Editions through Edelweiss .
December 10, 2025
I was so consumed by this book I read it in one sitting. It flows so well and it was fascinating to see the story of this family unfold over time. The writing was so descriptive and vivid it felt as if I was watching this all play out on a movie screen. I adored Ellie and Carolyn and related to them in different ways. The themes of finding yourself, coming of age, loss, and reckoning were included in this book. There were some very deep emotions and the cast or characters is simply unforgettable! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The main character in Dan Simon’s novel, Ashland is the town of Ashland. New Hampshire. Ashland is a town with a population of less than 2000 since it’s inception in 1868. The town lies in a triangle wedged between the Pemigewasset River on the west and Little Squam Lake on the east. The town has a history of a sawmill and textile mill industry. During the time period of the novel, 1970s-1990s, there are changes happening in the town's job market, with downsizing of the L.W. Packard textile mill, (which eventually closed for good in 2002). The story of Ashland is told through several narrators, the main one being Carolyn, born in 1972 when her mother is seventeen, and how she sees Ashland and herself as part of the world. She lives with her mother, her cousin who is a few months younger than her, and with her aunt who had her cousin at fourteen. Carolyn recounts her childhood, but there is not much about her father, who is long gone, or how her mother and aunt had children too young. She focuses more on the way that she interacts with nature and how Ashland might be a place that people want to leave, but she sees it as the only place that she can live.
Most of Ashland is an exploration of nature. The town, but also the rivers, the lakes, and the mountains that surround the area. The people who are not born there are people who think that it is paradise, a place that should not even exist. The teacher at Plymouth State, where Carolyn and her mother eventually attend at separate times, says that he has fallen in love with the state and the area because of the soil, the mountains and the beauty. He is in awe that the mountains are close enough that his students can attend morning classes, climb one of the forty-one 40,000 feet elevation mountain peaks in the area, and be back home in the evening to study. Every person in Ashland who narrates feels that they are living in a place that is special, and even though bad things happen to the people who inhabit the town, job loss, teenage pregnancy, long time sickness, and even death, there is a sense that everyone is blessed by being in this town and in this area.
There are many different voices and narrators telling the story, but the main one is Carolyn as a child and teenager. This voice was kind of confusing to me at first, due to receiving texture hints that there are major things happening between the adults in her life, but she is focusing on nature and the rivers and the way that the wind is blowing in the trees. I thought it was strange that all of the adults seemed to get along in a beautiful way from her perspective, even when they are ex-lovers, fathers of their children, and people who should not genuinely get along. I finally realized that with this being told mostly through the eyes of a young girl, the adults are being nice to one another in front of her so that she does not recognize some of the turmoil around her. This little quirk to the narrative makes me think that the story is not about the truth, not even really about Carolyn, her family, and her neighbors, but about growing up in a small town in the middle of the mountains and forest, and how this can overshadow anything bad and hurtful.
Ashland is a meditation on nature and place more than it is about story and characters. There is very little of the appeal of other small town novels like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or To Kill A Mockingbird because those are instances of characters driving the story of a small town. Ashland is more like a small town driving the characters. Those who were born in Ashland think about leaving but do not really want leave this land, and the people who have move there feel like they have been dropped into the lap of God. This is a love letter to growing up, nature, and to Ashland, New Hampshire and the surrounding area.
I received an ARC of Ashland through the publisher, Europa Editions, in exchange for an honest review.
Most of Ashland is an exploration of nature. The town, but also the rivers, the lakes, and the mountains that surround the area. The people who are not born there are people who think that it is paradise, a place that should not even exist. The teacher at Plymouth State, where Carolyn and her mother eventually attend at separate times, says that he has fallen in love with the state and the area because of the soil, the mountains and the beauty. He is in awe that the mountains are close enough that his students can attend morning classes, climb one of the forty-one 40,000 feet elevation mountain peaks in the area, and be back home in the evening to study. Every person in Ashland who narrates feels that they are living in a place that is special, and even though bad things happen to the people who inhabit the town, job loss, teenage pregnancy, long time sickness, and even death, there is a sense that everyone is blessed by being in this town and in this area.
There are many different voices and narrators telling the story, but the main one is Carolyn as a child and teenager. This voice was kind of confusing to me at first, due to receiving texture hints that there are major things happening between the adults in her life, but she is focusing on nature and the rivers and the way that the wind is blowing in the trees. I thought it was strange that all of the adults seemed to get along in a beautiful way from her perspective, even when they are ex-lovers, fathers of their children, and people who should not genuinely get along. I finally realized that with this being told mostly through the eyes of a young girl, the adults are being nice to one another in front of her so that she does not recognize some of the turmoil around her. This little quirk to the narrative makes me think that the story is not about the truth, not even really about Carolyn, her family, and her neighbors, but about growing up in a small town in the middle of the mountains and forest, and how this can overshadow anything bad and hurtful.
Ashland is a meditation on nature and place more than it is about story and characters. There is very little of the appeal of other small town novels like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or To Kill A Mockingbird because those are instances of characters driving the story of a small town. Ashland is more like a small town driving the characters. Those who were born in Ashland think about leaving but do not really want leave this land, and the people who have move there feel like they have been dropped into the lap of God. This is a love letter to growing up, nature, and to Ashland, New Hampshire and the surrounding area.
I received an ARC of Ashland through the publisher, Europa Editions, in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Ashland by Dan Simon is a highly recommended literary family drama following the intimate, accepting bonds built between mothers, sisters, and cousins, as well as the story of the small town of Ashland, New Hampshire.
Carolyn, born to an unwed teenager, grows up along side her mother Ellie, her aunt Jennie, who also had children as a teenager, and her cousins in the small declining town of Asland. The inclusive family love and support each other always and through everything over the years. Carolyn, who loves writing, audits writing classes at the local university taught by writing instructor, Geoff. Also told is the story of other characters, including Edith and Gordon, a couple who meet in a 1920s tuberculosis sanatorium. All the stories together tell not only her family's history but also the history of Ashland.
This beautifully written, poetic literary novel tells the desperate story of quiet lives, or perhaps demonstrates Thoreau's "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Carolyn herself finds contentment and peace in the present even while others wistfully recall the past and she writes about her experiences and the people she knows. The novel develops both the individual characters and the setting/place of Ashland.
The narrative unfolds in chapters through several first-person narrators who tell their own stories through their own thoughts. It also jumps around switching narrators and time periods throughout. This can feel a little disconcerting as if it holds the reader at arms length keeping a distance between them and the characters. It does cover a wide variety of experiences they endure over times. The ending ties all the stories together beautifully.
Ashland will be best appreciated by those who enjoy literary fiction told through multiple narrators. Thanks to Europa Editions for providing me with an advance reader's copy. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/0...
Carolyn, born to an unwed teenager, grows up along side her mother Ellie, her aunt Jennie, who also had children as a teenager, and her cousins in the small declining town of Asland. The inclusive family love and support each other always and through everything over the years. Carolyn, who loves writing, audits writing classes at the local university taught by writing instructor, Geoff. Also told is the story of other characters, including Edith and Gordon, a couple who meet in a 1920s tuberculosis sanatorium. All the stories together tell not only her family's history but also the history of Ashland.
This beautifully written, poetic literary novel tells the desperate story of quiet lives, or perhaps demonstrates Thoreau's "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Carolyn herself finds contentment and peace in the present even while others wistfully recall the past and she writes about her experiences and the people she knows. The novel develops both the individual characters and the setting/place of Ashland.
The narrative unfolds in chapters through several first-person narrators who tell their own stories through their own thoughts. It also jumps around switching narrators and time periods throughout. This can feel a little disconcerting as if it holds the reader at arms length keeping a distance between them and the characters. It does cover a wide variety of experiences they endure over times. The ending ties all the stories together beautifully.
Ashland will be best appreciated by those who enjoy literary fiction told through multiple narrators. Thanks to Europa Editions for providing me with an advance reader's copy. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/0...
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
All anybody could hope for me–all I could hope for–was that I’d be different, that I’d break the age-old family tradition of early ruination. from Ashland by Dan Simon
The people of the dying mill town of Ashland, New Hampshire tell their stories in this haunting and melancholic book.
In the center is Carolyn, the daughter of an unwed mother. She grew up in love with words. At twenty, she takes writing classes with a teacher who recognizes her messy life and her strength and her talent. When her writing teacher asks Carolyn what her book is called, she replies “Ashland.” She remembers people, the living and dead, and attaches “words like clothing to their nakedness,” endeavoring to “capture all of it.”
The natural world is being destroyed, but Carolyn finds beauty even in the ruin. So do the naturalists Gordon and Edie. They live in a primitive cabin. Gordon remembers life before electricity and automobiles, when everyone was working class, before the divisions into the super rich and very poor. Gordon thinks, “In my lifetime I’ve seen art’s beauty dim and some of that glow go to money and lucre, but it is like pouring water and sunshine on a slab of rock and expecting it to sprout forth!”
Andy has always loved Jennie, Carolyn’s aunt. She bore him four children, but quickly ended their brief marriage. His people sold off the land, piece by piece, to pay for taxes. He has seen the end of family farming. Jennie loves Andy, but she has a wild streak. She lets go of the man she loves.
But when you mix together our paradise and all too human fear what you get is hypocrisy and betrayal, plain stupidity, and all the different human disappointments. from Ashland by Dan Simon
A compassionate and beautiful book.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
The people of the dying mill town of Ashland, New Hampshire tell their stories in this haunting and melancholic book.
In the center is Carolyn, the daughter of an unwed mother. She grew up in love with words. At twenty, she takes writing classes with a teacher who recognizes her messy life and her strength and her talent. When her writing teacher asks Carolyn what her book is called, she replies “Ashland.” She remembers people, the living and dead, and attaches “words like clothing to their nakedness,” endeavoring to “capture all of it.”
The natural world is being destroyed, but Carolyn finds beauty even in the ruin. So do the naturalists Gordon and Edie. They live in a primitive cabin. Gordon remembers life before electricity and automobiles, when everyone was working class, before the divisions into the super rich and very poor. Gordon thinks, “In my lifetime I’ve seen art’s beauty dim and some of that glow go to money and lucre, but it is like pouring water and sunshine on a slab of rock and expecting it to sprout forth!”
Andy has always loved Jennie, Carolyn’s aunt. She bore him four children, but quickly ended their brief marriage. His people sold off the land, piece by piece, to pay for taxes. He has seen the end of family farming. Jennie loves Andy, but she has a wild streak. She lets go of the man she loves.
But when you mix together our paradise and all too human fear what you get is hypocrisy and betrayal, plain stupidity, and all the different human disappointments. from Ashland by Dan Simon
A compassionate and beautiful book.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
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March 5, 2026NO: A book I borrowed from the library to try before I buy (tired buying hundreds books and hating half)
I do not rate these “tested”
books. This is really for me. I will not be buying, reading borrowing this book.
I read first ch or more -first 10-100 pages skim around at times. I read many of my GR friend’s reviews. This is what I did and didn’t like:
Love cover & small size
The story sounds good n I love ch driven but there’s zero conversation I just can’t.
I do not rate these “tested”
books. This is really for me. I will not be buying, reading borrowing this book.
I read first ch or more -first 10-100 pages skim around at times. I read many of my GR friend’s reviews. This is what I did and didn’t like:
Love cover & small size
The story sounds good n I love ch driven but there’s zero conversation I just can’t.
February 24, 2026
3.75 or possibly 4 stars - Almost connected short stories, but just a little more of a through line than that. Told by many narrators. On the sentence level the writing is gorgeous, but some parts worked much better for me than others. Full review to follow.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Tender and contemplative, profoundly beautiful at times. Impressionistic like afternoon sun filtering through autumn leaves.
March 3, 2026
achingly beautiful
I dare you to read this without shedding a million tears.
This book could move a mountain (if it hasn’t already).
I dare you to read this without shedding a million tears.
This book could move a mountain (if it hasn’t already).
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews