Country People

by Daniel Mason

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.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, Adult, Book Club

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication July 7, 2026

About the author

Daniel 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.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv) · Rating 2 out of 5]

[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 (Kate's odd behaviour in the past, where Miles suspects she cheated, is never revisited with clarity). 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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[Liana Gold]

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

[Bruce Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 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.

[Claire Fuller]

A 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.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Emily Hauser · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Kristina Pauls (ARC Reviewer) · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"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.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Meg C · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Annie Tate Cockrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Petra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Country People is so incredibly funny. Not in a ‘An academic couple move to Vermont and hilarity ensues…’ type of way. But in the way that Daniel Mason expertly crafts absurdist situations out of every day encounters. The ‘Hollow-Earther, hiking trail leader and Beyoncé and Jay Z’ situation is just one of these moments.

It’s possible that we’re meant to read Miles as a bit of a flibbertigibbet, a bit flighty and unfocused. Much is made of the fact that he’s been trying to finish his dissertation for 12 years because he keeps changing the direction of it.
But I absolutely LOVE his character. His joyful enthusiasm, his curiosity, his ginormous imagination, his ability to be able to converse with everybody - he sounds like someone who could absolutely lift your spirits when life is hard. And his made-up stories he tells to his children at every bedtime - they would be books you’d want to read. Even if one run of stories by an imaginary character did inadvertently lead to his son having horrifying night terrors for a month.

Moving from California to Vermont, Miles is seeking out authentic ‘Country People’. Ostensibly for his thesis but also because he’s Miles, and Miles is enthusiastic and curious about everything.
But all the country people he meets are actually ‘outsiders’ - people who have transported to Vermont who are living ‘country’ with their own interpretation of what country people do. So we meet loads of very funny characters and situations - but not necessarily authentic Vermont Country People.

I could have quite happily just read about Miles, his family, and all the other Vermont characters but there is much more to this book than just humorous vignettes. I won’t go into here to avoid spoilers, but needless to say, it’s quite bonkers and utterly brilliant.

[katie ౨ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

thank you to netgalley for the arc

the title of this book aptly describes the story - a family moves from urban california out into rural vermont. the story centers around the father, miles, and his family including his wife kate and their two children olive and wesley.

miles is directionless. he is in his mid forties and has not finished his phd dissertation. he has changed the focus of his study over a dozen times. he thinks this move will give him time to focus on his newest topic - russian peasants in literature - while his wife soars in her academic career as a guest professor in a prestigious school.

what we get instead of miles’ finishing what he started is miles wandering through life and seeing the family bumble through incorporating into this small town. miles is a frustrating character to follow as many ideas are brought up but there’s no follow through on most of them. the fantastical element to this story lends a more whimsical mood to the “plot” (there is no plot) but cannot overcome the experience of following such a frustrating and annoying character as this man.

that all being said, the writing is beautiful and even charming at times. i would have loved it more if it was about anyone else in this story other than MILES

[Leah]

Daniel Mason has a unique and fascinating gift for storytelling, something that was on full display in North Woods with its inventive structure, and Country People is told in an almost fairytale-like style that draws you in and carries you away

Because of this, I almost didn’t immediately realise that I wasn’t connecting with the story itself. I’m afraid that, in this instance, I found it rather boring, mainly because I don’t think it is my cup of tea

Ultimately, I DNF’d it at around the halfway point, as I wasn’t finding myself connecting with the story or characters

That said, Daniel Mason will continue to be firmly on my TBR radar, as I find his writing truly wonderful, and I look forward to his future publications!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for approving my request!

[Lydia Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy of Country People by Daniel Mason. I was not a huge fan of North Woods, but right from the start this one had me laughing out loud. There’s this subtle humor throughout, like the book is winking at you.

I live in Maine and love a book about New England, and since I moved here from elsewhere and built a family life, I can really relate to the community he portrays. There’s even a very charming school theater production woven in.

In the end, this book reminded me of the importance of open communication with your spouse, building connection in a community, and the beautiful threads of country life, particularly in New England.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[Anna Vaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 ⭐️

Daniel Mason is truly a master of the craft. For lovers of North Woods, there’s lots to love in Country People- beautiful and mysterious New England landscapes, folklore, complicated family dynamics. His writing is page-turning as always and Country People even takes many comedic turns.

I will admit though there’s something unsatisfying in the ending. We get answers, but our little family does not, and the tensions between them are resolved with too little effort. I’m left thinking I’ve finished a great book, but not an all time favorite.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miles, Kate, their children, and their truffle hunting dog, move from California for Kate to be a visiting professor in the English department of a small, prestigious, liberal arts college, and where Miles will once again take up his long overdue PhD dissertation on Russian folktales. This is a captivating and witty fish out of water story. It also becomes a story of the quirky cast of characters in their rural Vermont town, who are a lot of fun, but keep MIles from his dissertation; as well as a local legend about a world hidden beyond a cave which draws Miles (and the truffle dog) under its spell. This is a lyrical, layered, laugh out loud funny novel, concerned with marriage, parenthood, the power of stories, rural life and academia. I loved it and could not stop reading.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of finding humor in the day to day, hearing strangers’ stories, wandering through nature’s charming enchantments, letting part of yourself believe in the make-believe, and the comfort of a scruffy, mischievous canine.

Miles Krzelewski’s wife, Kate, gets a job offer to be a visiting professor at a college in Vermont, so the couple, their two children, and the family dog leave California and head across the country. Miles hopes that time in a rural area will finally give him the time and motivation he needs to finish his dissertation on Russian folktales that he’s been working on for 12 years. However, upon arrival in Vermont, Miles instead becomes distracted by and fascinated with small town life and the array of interesting people he meets.

I think to say anything more would ruin the experience of reading this one. It’s fairly light on plot (albeit there is an interesting one that develops) and largely focuses on a fantastic cast of characters, all of which I found to be delightful. Miles, Kate, their children Wesley and Olive, their dog Giuseppe, and every person they meet in their new town. Loved them all.

Mason’s writing (as expected) is wonderfully intelligent while being simultaneously hilarious. The tone of this novel; honestly, it’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. But there is also a lot of heart to, exploring love, family, community, and the ways in which storytelling connects us. Truly, I loved it and I can definitely see myself reading it again later this year.

For North Woods fans, I think of Country People as a different type of tree, but in the same forest.

[Sophia Eck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Country People is as it is titled: A book about country people, from the perspective of a family of those not wholly familiar with what that entails. A husband and wife, and their two children, move to Vermont for a job opportunity for the wife at a pretentious university, and all four of them build uniquely quaint and quirky relationships to the place and the people.
Daniel Mason, from what I have read in this book and his previous book North Woods, seems to like to do a lot of experimenting with different form and dynamics in his writing, and I find that is where he loses me a little. The book slowly adds in more and more characters, each kookier than the last, each with their own polarizing personalities and strange lore, and it quickly spirals into an exhausting cast of somewhat unfulfilled narratives, leaving the reader feeling about as uninspired with the book as Miles, our main character, is with his thesis. Maybe I am just too anti-social for this much dispersion of character work, and too tired to care about the things a mediocre husband and father makes up in his free time, free time that in this novel he has too much of. I do think a lot of people will still love this though, it gives off strong potential for a non-polarizing bestseller pick.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun- if that makes sense. Large parts of this book just provided joy. I feel the main character was like that- he didn't really have a solid purpose in life so he was devoted to improving the lives of his family and those around him. There is chronic illness and struggles with depression but even that does not bring the book down. There are few just good people on earth, it was good to spend time with one. Even when you went "oh no, this story is about to go off the rails" Mason quickly brought you back to the soul of the book. I should have trusted him more.

What does bring the story down is this B story about a hollow earth (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers). It really didn't add much to the story and probably could have been edited out. And the rat stuff was just gross.

Having lived in New Hampshire and spent much time in VT, he certainly picks up the eccentricities and randomness of small town living. And the skiing- perfection! I felt like I was out on the trail again.

The language at times annoyed me- I'm not a fan of passive language- but I know here it was part of the fairy tale being woven. The book was also slow reading- you read and read and read and made no progress!

Received as an ARC from NetGalley.

ATY Prompt: A book published in 2026

ATY Prompt: TBD

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishers for an advanced digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was just delightful—whimsical, playful, a little ridiculous in spots. It follows a family who relocates from California to New England for a year. The wife has a visiting professorship. The husband, who has been working on some form of his dissertation for years, is trying to finish it or to change it or maybe figure out the locals or perhaps just figure out himself. Throw in a precocious son and artistic daughter along with an enthusiastic dog and a town full of interesting people, and the cast of characters is both full of quirkiness and utterly charming. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel (and love the author’s voice and descriptions). It will resonate with some and not with others, but I absolutely recommend it!

[Sue]

Thanks to Netgalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for a review. I really enjoy Daniel Mason's writings so I was thrilled to pick this one up. Sadly for me it didn't have the same oomph. It started great but then just fizzled for me. Unpopular opinion, but for me it just felt like watching a golf game.

[Justice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this just fine. Not the kind of story I would’ve picked up if I hadn’t adored North Woods so much. It’s not the same but enjoyable nonetheless. Felt like an uphill read until the last 3rd but I liked the writing style and tone enough to persevere.

[Abby Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be the most "literary" book I've read in awhile. And thus, it took me longer to read this short novel. I enjoyed this family's adventure of becoming country people. It seems simplistic but, I appreciate a simple story line without drama and/or fantasy! It was JUST a story of a family and their world. 5 stars from me.
Thanks Netgalley and Random House for the Ebook ARC

[Riley Rourke · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book! fun characters. at no point did i know where it was going but i liked the message of enjoying things just to enjoy things. i loved how he rotated from scything to skiing before he finally landed on this secret underground world. plus the kid characters were engaging and hilarious. i loved the overall message finding and enjoying a bigger purpose than yourself. really amazing book. thank you for the ARC!!

[Scott Stelter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun and funny book! Each character within the main family feels very real and relatable. I particularly liked Miles, as I think his portrayal of like modern male loneliness was interesting. Lots of great stuff about a small college town in Vermont (which reminded me of Middlebury). I loved the humorous tone, despite some serious subject matter.

Thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book!

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is funny! But is that it? I don’t know. I had a good time reading Country People, but at times I found myself wondering what the point was. It meandered through many different ideas and topics and I wasn’t super satisfied with how they were resolved. I think that this will be a favorite for a lot of people, it just wasn’t for me in the way that I hoped it would be.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

[Tony]

omg