Ask Bookie
Overview
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - A year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont), leaving all the comforts of home behind--a rollicking, lyrical novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason, the bestselling author of North Woods and one of America's greatest living writers
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 faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the 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 those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world's delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas. The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: 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.Customers Also Bought
- 1
Details
- ISBN-13: 9798217197453
- ISBN-10: 9798217197453
- Publisher: Random House
- Publish Date: July 2026
- Dimensions: 9.51 x 6.11 x 1.31 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.19 pounds
- Page Count: 320
Related Categories
You May Also Like...
- 1
Daniel Mason’s fifth novel, Country People, is a delightful family comedy set in rural New England. Readers who remember the town of Oakfield, Massachusetts, from Mason’s Pulitzer-nominated North Woods will note that this new novel takes place right across the state line in Greensbury, Vermont. Like Oakfield, the fictional setting of Greensbury allows Mason’s imagination to roam free, with joy-making results. Miles Krzelewski and Kate Petrosian have left California’s Silicon Valley with their two children, Wesley and Olive, and beloved family dog, Giuseppe, so Kate can pursue a one-year professorship at a prestigious Vermont private college. Kate’s an academic superstar, and her seminars on Milton are said to be mind-blowing. Adoring husband and doting father Miles is 14 years into research for his dissertation on Russian folklore (12 years behind schedule). His wife’s unspoken hope is that the wooded forests and family farms of Vermont will inspire Miles to complete his work and find direction—as well as a steady second income for the family. Miles, however, bears an abundant capacity to be interested in everyone and everything he encounters, and soon finds himself drawn into the day-to-day of country living, from rat migration paths to skate skiing. He is fascinated by the locals, including a biochemist turned apple farmer and a neighbor who claims to be the incarnation of famous snowflake photographer Wilson Bentley. A docent-led hike at a local nature preserve introduces Miles to a group of neighbors who believe an arcane 19th-century legend about Vermont caves leading to an underground land where herds of wooly mammoths graze by sparkling crystal castles. Though the details are preposterous, the group offers Miles camaraderie that he has been unable to find elsewhere. Poking fun at midlife crises, Country People is cheerfully absurd. The Krzelewski-Petrosians get lost in the woods, explore hidden caves and navigate each other’s quirks and idiosyncrasies while deepening relationships with their new community. One of our country’s most gifted novelists, Mason has spun a yarn about parenthood and marriage, storytelling and imagination, and most of all, the importance of having shared goals, even with people you don’t agree with—an important lesson for fractured times.
Daniel Mason’s fifth novel, Country People, is a delightful family comedy set in rural New England. Readers who remember the town of Oakfield, Massachusetts, from Mason’s Pulitzer-nominated North Woods will note that this new novel takes place right across the state line in Greensbury, Vermont. Like Oakfield, the fictional setting of Greensbury allows Mason’s imagination to roam free, with joy-making results. Miles Krzelewski and Kate Petrosian have left California’s Silicon Valley with their two children, Wesley and Olive, and beloved family dog, Giuseppe, so Kate can pursue a one-year professorship at a prestigious Vermont private college. Kate’s an academic superstar, and her seminars on Milton are said to be mind-blowing. Adoring husband and doting father Miles is 14 years into research for his dissertation on Russian folklore (12 years behind schedule). His wife’s unspoken hope is that the wooded forests and family farms of Vermont will inspire Miles to complete his work and find direction—as well as a steady second income for the family. Miles, however, bears an abundant capacity to be interested in everyone and everything he encounters, and soon finds himself drawn into the day-to-day of country living, from rat migration paths to skate skiing. He is fascinated by the locals, including a biochemist turned apple farmer and a neighbor who claims to be the incarnation of famous snowflake photographer Wilson Bentley. A docent-led hike at a local nature preserve introduces Miles to a group of neighbors who believe an arcane 19th-century legend about Vermont caves leading to an underground land where herds of wooly mammoths graze by sparkling crystal castles. Though the details are preposterous, the group offers Miles camaraderie that he has been unable to find elsewhere. Poking fun at midlife crises, Country People is cheerfully absurd. The Krzelewski-Petrosians get lost in the woods, explore hidden caves and navigate each other’s quirks and idiosyncrasies while deepening relationships with their new community. One of our country’s most gifted novelists, Mason has spun a yarn about parenthood and marriage, storytelling and imagination, and most of all, the importance of having shared goals, even with people you don’t agree with—an important lesson for fractured times.