Country People: 'The book of the summer' Mick Herron

by Daniel Mason

Across the border from Oakfield, Massachusetts, the setting of Daniel Mason's North Woods, sits the college town of Greensbury, Vermont, where a young family arrives one summer day from California for an idyllic year in the country. There is Miles, a loveable if highly distractible scholar of Russian folktales who has been "working" on his dissertation for fourteen years; Kate, his wife, a superstar English professor whose ambition is fueled by a brush with serious illness (and managing her hapless husband); their fantasy-loving son Wesley; their artist daughter Olive; and their dog, Giuseppe, a truffle-hunting master of excavation in a land with no truffles.

Over the course of the year, as Kate introduces her students to the pleasures of Milton and Blake, Miles will make no progress on Russian folktales, but will, through what Kate calls his "capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere," gain entrée into a world with a mystery of its own, a place not only of immense natural beauty and unforgettable neighbors, but also a bizarre, even ridiculous, local legend, which - Miles begins to wonder - might not be a legend after all.

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

288 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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[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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[Liana Gold]

Anticipated literary fiction!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publisher and the author, Daniel Mason for sending me this eARC.

Publication date: July 7, 2026

[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

[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.

[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!!

[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

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC.
Country People, the latest book by Daniel Mason, tells the story of a family over the course of one year, when they move from California to Vermont. The story begins in what seems a disjointed, distant style with a folklore-ish air. The short first section consists of a series of short excerpts from the memoirs of a 19th century figure, Jeremiah Wylks, followed by more recent local reports, local legends, and a reference to the Jeremiah Wylkes Society. When the family’s tale begins, with their road trip to Vermont, that too is recounted like a fairy tale, the family members referred to as Husband, Wife, Son, Daughter. Only the Dog, Giuseppe, is named.
But as the family settle in to their new life each family member becomes fleshed out, and we learn their names – Kate, an Academic who specialises in the works of Milton and Blake, has taken on a teaching post in Vermont for the year. Teenage son Wesley, precociously intelligent, Olive, an innocent, lively and artistic nine year old. We view events from the point of view of their father Miles, likeable, but unfocused, who, by his own admission, has yet to ‘come of age’. He is devoted to his family, but unable to finish his dissertation on Russian folk tales, a work in progress for the last 14 years.
Like Giuseppe the dog, Miles is easily distracted by anything that seems to promise adventure. While Kate becomes settled in her academic world, Miles drifts on the periphery, at first bemused, then bored and lonely. He had hoped these ‘real’ country people would give him an understanding of the Russian peasants of his folktales, but instead he feels an outsider. Eventually Miles finds his tribe, falling in with a group of local eccentrics, referred to as the Wylksians, who are seeking to validate Wylke’s theory that there is another world under our feet, that we live on the surface of a hollow world, which can be reached through hidden caverns in the local area. They are a quirky bunch, including a photographer of snowflakes who is making an Inventory of Wrong Ideas, a scything obsessed depressive biochemist, a Youtuber who posts about a farming life, although her followers are more interested in watching her than in farming.
The family fortunes, as experienced by Miles, are recounted in a light hearted, understated, and sometimes laugh out loud style. Everyone is loveable, including their faults. There are moments when the novel seems in danger of tipping over into whimsy, but it never quite does, because for everyone there is something to be sought – either a hidden world, or someone to share a life with. Everyone is on a personal journey, not least the K-P family, for whom their new life in Vermont throws challenges that are in danger of pulling them apart.
The novel has a playful air of mystery, an unexplained magic. Threads run through, hinting at something stirring underground. The family dog senses this and starts to dig obsessively, even digging up the floor of the family home. A chat show on local radio The Miscellaneous Minute, ‘the only Minute that’s actually an hour’, has all attempts at serious discussion sabotaged by the same few callers, one obsessed with his swimming pool.
This is a curious story that works on levels – the playful humour, the affectionate portrayal of country life, but also the hidden sadness, the weight of history, a continuity passed through the generations, the importance of friendships, family, and community. There is a sense of something dark shifting in the world, but we are never taken deep enough for it to permanently damage the family. There is jeopardy, but the overall tone is of a light hearted work of great seriousness, a gentle, thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining read.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illustrative of Mason never writing the same book twice, Country People is, unlike his intensely dramatic oeuvre (so far—even if North Woods had some levity), an erudite comedy brimming with yarns and fables, myths and mysteries, secrets and ancient allegories.

Eccentric characters leap from the pages, including a most lovable, truffle-hunting, Italian dog (Lagotto Romagnolo) named Giuseppi. If you asked me the plot, I’m likely to say that it’s charmingly askew; if you ask who’s the hero of the story, it’s definitely Giuseppi!

We are transported to a rural Vermont village, where Kate, a PhD of English Lit and a courageous woman fighting multiple sclerosis (now in remission many years) accepts a position at the local college. She and fam move from California. Husband Miles is jobless Mr. Mom, the procrastinating ABD in Russian folktales.

Does he really want to pursue what he has delayed—his PhD at age forty-five? Their young son, Wesley, and precocious daughter, Olive, keep him busy and happy, truly a calling. If I were a fictional character and middle-aged, I’d pine for Miles for the rest of my storybook life.

Less a plot and more like linear-ish vignettes of the Krzelewski family, the narrative introduces us to various quirky characters. There’s Bentley, the wheelchiar-bound giant of a man whose van full of index cards invites a Dewey Decimal of all the wrong ideas and false beliefs so far known to man. He is also, like his non-biological predecessor, Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, known to photograph a snowflake or a thousand.

Learn to ski? Go “Bjorning” with that handsome, neurotic championship skiier, Bjorn. Andrei is scythe-bearing and slow to trust others. There’s a countless oddball cast frolicking in and out of the story. Meanwhile, Giuseppi's digging and truffle hunting will lead us to a place that surprises everyone, characters and readers alike!

Interruptions in the narrative include a radio show, The Miscellaneous Minute, (which lasts an hour) which has daily and wildly diverse topics. There’s a concupiscent art director, Nausicaä, directing an elementary school class in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (would be banned here in Texas, I’m certain!).

Oh, and there’s a band of merry fellows and gals from this colorful cast who meet as a secret society to regularly discuss a 461 page historical text called Colloquies, which is best characterized, in this story, as a form of modern hermeneutics.

And it's not the flat earthers you need to worry about here--it's the hollow earthers, somewhere probably far south of the middle earthers.

Brainy (and sometimes obscure) in its allusions (I am no scholar), I did feel vibes of Plato, Tolkien, John Irving, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Pynchon without the cynicism, a little bit Nabokov, a side of Gary Shteyngart, a nod to Richard Russo, a wink to Dante, and I’m not familiar enough with Milton—but the narrative does mention him a lot. Oh, and of course, comedic Russian folktales with a peppering of magic. And the Bard. You’ll find more if you’re a wink wiser than me.

I recommend just to open the book and follow the pages. If Miles was an archetype, he’d be the Fool in the Tarot deck, which is, in this context, a compliment. He’s good-natured, loyal, accepting, and endlessly curious. Achingly lovable, he plunges passionately (with restraint) into his new life with the country people. Miles isn’t knock-kneed or fumbling; he just thinks he is. Everyone is welcome. This book contains multitudes.

“...in addition to the world manifestly before us, there existed something one might call a Mystery, at times yielding its secrets, at times holding them more closely.”

Thank you endlessly to Random House for sending me a print copy for review.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Mason’s writing and story telling abilities never cease to amaze and captivate me, and this novel is probably my most favorite of all his work. The novel describes modern small-town American life and culture, but with an ancient theme intertwined into the modern ones.
The main characters are members of an academic family: Kate (mom and well known Milton scholar); Miles (dad, working on his PhD dissertation for 15 years with almost as many different topics); Wesley (7th grade boy, very bright and into details of the world); Olive (3rd grade girl, loves art); and Giuseppe (the family dog, bred to hunt/dig truffles). The reader meets the family as they have left their urban California home and lifestyle and are driving across the US to Vermont, where Kate has accepted a one year visiting professorship. Their trip across the US is incredibly humorous and completely real. If you have ever been on a family toad trip, you will know that Danile Mason captured all aspects of such an event perfectly and humorously.
The family arrives in a small town in Vermont and marvels at all aspects of “the country”: the small country house, all the forests and countryside, the country vegetable stands, and, most importantly, the country people. They are living free of charge in the house of a professor on leave, and the soon begin to experience some of the reasons why this “country house” might be less than idyllic (i.e. pests), which causes them to start to interact with the country people who inhabit the small town. Their interaction with the community grows more extensive when Wesley and Olive attend school. Kate becomes immersed in her academic life and new university friends. Miles will do just about anything to avoid his dissertation, and he makes many new and unique friends. Giuseppe is one of the best family dog characters ever!
Daniel Mason uses this background to create a cast of unique characters, who perfectly fill the roles of all the people who inhabit America – from completely eccentric (or really just normal?!) to apparently normal (but what its that, really?). There was a great deal of humor, but, of course, also a great deal of seriousness, because this was an excellent portrayal of a small town in the US.
The character of Miles is followed most completely. His latest dissertation topic is Russian folktales, and (although he avoids his dissertation), Miles is an incredible teller of imaginary tales to his children. In addition, he becomes friends with a group of people who believe in the existence of a magnificent world inside the earth, entered by a hidden cave near the town. Thus the theme of the underworld and tales related thereto is developed. From Hell (referenced by Kate’s poet Milton) to the beautiful underworld said to exist below the Vermont town, the ancient concept of the existence of an underworld brings a great depth and creativity to the novel.
There were many literary references in the novel, from Tolstoy to Shakespeare to Milton. We see literary references in many novels. In this case, however, the references often created played heavily into the plot of the novel. Very enjoyable!
Several things will remain with me from this novel: The beauty and creativity of the novel are outstanding; the descriptions of everyday life juxtaposed with myth and tales were extremely special; and Mason’s description of a family and the humor and tragedy in their every-day lives were excellently portrayed.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4 stars**

*Country People* by Daniel Mason is a warm, whimsical, and quietly profound novel that captures a year of transformation through the lens of family, storytelling, and the search for meaning. Set against the wooded landscapes of Vermont, the book blends humor, folklore, and emotional reflection into a narrative that feels both playful and deeply sincere.

At the center of the story is Miles Krzelewski, a devoted father and husband who feels increasingly adrift in his own life. Years behind on his PhD and haunted by a sense of underachievement, he follows his wife Kate to Vermont, hoping the change of scenery will help him regain direction. Instead, he finds himself drawn into the rhythms and eccentricities of a new place, where progress looks very different from what he had imagined.

Miles is an endearing and often frustrating protagonist. His curiosity and openness make him easy to like, especially in his role as a storyteller to his children, where his imagination becomes a form of connection and care. At the same time, his tendency to drift from one fascination to another creates tension, particularly in his marriage. The dynamic between Miles and Kate is handled with nuance, capturing the quiet strains and enduring affection that shape long term relationships.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its cast of characters. The people Miles encounters in Vermont feel as though they have stepped out of a folktale, each with their own peculiar obsessions and philosophies. From a tree surgeon who seems almost spectral to a biochemist fixated on scythes, these figures add humor and texture while reinforcing the novel’s central theme that stories are everywhere, embedded in both people and places.

Mason’s prose is rich and inviting, filled with gentle humor and moments of quiet beauty. The natural world is rendered with particular care, the forests, snow, and shifting seasons grounding the more whimsical elements of the story. The setting becomes more than a backdrop, shaping the characters’ experiences and echoing the novel’s exploration of time, change, and belonging.

As Miles becomes intrigued by a strange local legend, the narrative takes on a slightly more mysterious edge. This thread adds intrigue without overwhelming the book’s reflective tone, allowing the story to maintain its balance between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The blending of folklore with everyday life feels organic, reinforcing the idea that meaning is often found in the stories we choose to believe.

The pacing is gentle and occasionally meandering, which may not appeal to readers looking for a tightly structured plot. Some threads feel less resolved than others, and the novel is more interested in moments and connections than in clear narrative conclusions. Still, this looseness suits the story’s themes, emphasizing experience over outcome.

*Country People* is a joyful and thoughtful novel about the messiness of adulthood, the endurance of love, and the quiet ways people find purpose. It is both light and reflective, offering a reading experience that feels comforting without being simplistic. In the end, it is a celebration of stories and the lives shaped by them, full of charm, warmth, and gentle insight.

[Mainlinebooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something quietly astonishing about the range of Daniel Mason, whose novels refuse to be confined to a single tonal register. With Country People, he turns his attention to the intimate theater of small-town life, revealing yet another facet of his literary sensibility—one that is at once playful, observant, and disarmingly humane.
From its opening pages, the novel establishes a tone that feels almost conspiratorial in its charm. Mason’s dialogue, in particular, carries a kind of buoyant intelligence: it invites not merely a smile, but a sustained, almost involuntary delight. There is a wit here that is neither forced nor ornamental; rather, it arises organically from the rhythms of speech, from the gentle absurdities of human interaction. One finds oneself, quite unexpectedly, savoring sentences—pausing not for their gravity, but for their lightness, their sly turns, their quiet, tongue-in-cheek subversions.
The premise itself is modest yet fertile: Miles, a lapsed PhD student who has spent an almost comically prolonged twelve years immersed in a dissertation on Russian folktales, relocates with his wife from California to rural Vermont, where she has accepted a visiting professorship. What unfolds from this seemingly simple migration is not so much a plot-driven narrative as a series of finely observed encounters. Mason populates his Vermont landscape with a cast of characters whose eccentricities never tip into caricature; instead, they are rendered with an affectionate precision that allows their quirks to feel both particular and universal.
It is within the dialogue—those exchanges at once meandering and incisive—that the novel truly finds its pulse. Conversations drift, double back, and occasionally veer into the delightfully absurd, yet always they carry with them an undercurrent of recognition. These are people speaking as people do: revealing themselves inadvertently, contradicting themselves lightly, and, in doing so, inviting the reader into a shared, almost communal amusement. The smiles elicited are not merely responses to humor, but to a deeper recognition of the odd grace of ordinary life.
At its heart, Country People is an exploration of community—how it is stumbled upon rather than sought, how it accumulates through small gestures and repeated encounters. In a literary landscape often preoccupied with urgency and upheaval, Mason offers something quieter but no less meaningful: a gentle immersion into a world where connection is both the subject and the solace.
To read this novel is to experience a subtle but restorative pleasure. Its lightheartedness is not trivial; rather, it is sustaining. One emerges from its pages with the sense that, for a time, the mind has been lifted—if only slightly—from the weight of the present, and reminded instead of the enduring, quietly comic texture of human life.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review

[Julie Stielstra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something different for Daniel Mason: a comedy. Miles and Kate, a pair of college professors, uproot themselves and their two kids, Wesley and Olive, from a southern California college town (which sounds rather like Stanford, where Mason teaches) to southern Vermont, where Kate has been invited to fill a visiting professorship at a small college. From the sun-dried atmosphere of west coast academia, they drive slowly across the middle west, where Olive uses up all the brown crayons she has, until she cracks open the all the green ones when they reach New England. There they settle into a tight, cozy little college community among "country people." Miles, who is twelve years into allegedly writing a dissertation on Russian peasant folklore, pretends he is going to finally finish it, and hopes that he will gain insights from the local Vermonters, as he has never met an actual "peasant." His wife slots right into the academic clique, and the kids quickly find their niches with art class, skiing, and gaming. Miles is left to putter and ferry the kids, deal with a rodent infestation and a highly enthusiastic truffle dog.

Culture conflict is a story staple, and it gets plenty of play here. As someone who heaved a huge sigh of relief to leave Chicago in the rear view mirror and settle into the geometric center of Kansas, I get it. The native Vermonters initially present as rubes, eccentrics, men who stand around discussing their lawn tractors, and Miles has no idea how to talk to them. Fortunately, Mason can poke as much fun at Miles and Kate as he does at the "country people." It is also clear that the academic environment is largely the same, no matter which coast you're on, or near. For example, Kate's class on Milton (on whom she is an expert) attracts three students; dozens opt for her class in memoir, but most drop out when they discover that they will not be writing about themselves but studying classical examples from the seventeenth century. Then Miles literally stumbles into a meeting of enthusiasts believing in a local legend of an alternative underground universe, promulgated by a nineteenth century resident. They are gently cheerful, pleasant people, with some real loons among them. But somehow they become Miles's community, which he is embarrassed to admit to his wife. This part of the novel goes a little silly, and long. Mason sets up some likable characters, his wit is crisp and not mean, and it's been a wryly amusing read which made me smile if not laugh. Then it seems to wane into the faintly ridiculous, proceeds into a drama of a lost child, and then just trails off into two odd epilogues.

Mason is a wonderful writer. This is a pleasantly enjoyable story that wanders off in the final third. But he is capable of so much more, and doesn't use it to his best ability here.

[Logan Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some novels remind me of why I read and write in the first place. These stories are often marvelous works of craft, timely and representative of the unique power contained within this long form. Most importantly — I mean this, truly — these novels are also entertaining.

Country People by Daniel Mason is entertaining. It’s eminently readable. It has a structure that conjures the literary classics of another time, vignettes stacked and stacked until they come together into a vivid point. The central push of the novel (as it develops about 3/4 of the way through) is a revitalizing step into wonder.

This structure matches the novel’s protagonist perfectly. Miles is a wayward academic who follows his wife Kate to her new teaching position in rural Vermont, their precocious children in tow. Miles is a strong lead, the kind of man who’d rather learn 30 new skills instead of focus on a long, long overdue dissertation. I love the brilliant but messy academic. While the trope is often tied to villainous characters, Miles is actually an excellent father. He does get a little overzealous with his children’s bedtime stories though. These bedtime stories — so vivid that their son Wesley has a pediatric psychotic-break — are an early indicator of one of the book’s many themes. How much fantasy is too much? Can too much escapism harm us, harm the people we love?

As the family finds their bearings in this rustic town, we’re introduced to an expansive cast of strange characters, each trampling through their lives in their own unique ways. Miles isn’t quite sure where he belongs. In fact, the whole family are out of their element. City rats meets country mice, etc.

Reading Country People, I thought a lot about masculinity, especially as we raise our children. I thought about the works of Flannery O’Connor, the way her ‘Good Country People’ display sinister behavior under the facade of old-fashioned rural charm. Miles’ perception is flawed. While O’Connor would have punished her protagonist for this mistake, Daniel Mason takes a different tact. Goodwill and intelligence can be found even when you’re expecting something different.

Country People is a prescient exploration of belie, the tales that children and adults tell themselves to get by. It’s funny and heart-breaking, whimsical and vital. Minor stumbles crop up in the ending. The finale felt like it needed more time to breath. Additionally, a subplot involving a teacher feels out of place. Nevertheless, it’s hard to deny the scope that Mason finds in just 320 pages, a world beneath the story, subtext rendered bright.

(Country People by Daniel Mason releases 7-July-2026 from Penguin Random House. Review copy provided by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.)