ā¤ļø loved this book because...
There are stories where the setting is a character. In North Woods, as the title suggests, the setting is the MAIN character. The generations that pass over, under, and through the land are all just temporary visitors (as are we all) who leave their mark in different ways on the land they inhabit. At first, I felt confused by the seemingly unconnected tales of the "heathen" tribe and the young lovers who preceded them on the same land. But once I fell into the rhythm and gorgeous language of each vignette, the story washed over me and eventually the dots were connected in the same way the earth holds the seeds of one generation into the next. The author's clever use of different modes of storytelling (letters, diary entries, poetry, saga, a psychologist's notes, speeches) added to the authenticity of each time period. What a crazy cast of characters - from early natives to farmers, creepy sisters, clandestine lovers, artists, hunters, and ghosts! I loved starting each new chapter, not knowing who we'd meet, only that they would be anchored somehow to the woods. I highly recommend this beautiful saga where the woods tell the story.
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Loved Most
š„ Immersion š„ Originality -
Writing style
ā¤ļø Loved it -
Pace
š Good, steady pace
26 authors picked North Woods as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuriesāāa time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magicā (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
āWith the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchellās fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Masonās bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world thatās on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.āāSan Francisco Chronicle
New Yorkā¦