Join discussion leader Karen Vrotsos for our first Salisbury READS North Woods book discussion.

Daniel Mason's novel is rich and inventive, a great book to discuss, with fascinating characters, surprising events, revelations, and reflections on nature and humankind. 

What is North Woods about?

Chapters 1-4

North Woods follows the fortunes of a woodland home's inhabitants from the late 1600s through the 1820s. In Chapters 1-4, two young lovers flee the oppressions of New England Puritanism and settle in a wilderness cabin. That home becomes a vortex of human and natural drama, violence, and regeneration: a refuge for young lovers fleeing staunch New England Puritanism, a hideaway for desperate revolutionaries, a shelter for a pregnant woman fleeing captivity by indigenous people, a farmhouse for a homesteader and his two daughters who cultivate a rare variety of apple, a hiding place for a young woman escaping slavery and a ruthless pursuer, and a lair for a legendary mountain lion whose ravenous appetite echos the human characters' own passionate desires.

Chapters 5-12

North Woods sweeps through history from the 19th Century to our own near future. We'll discuss the book and its characters while shedding some light on historical, environmental, and cultural references, including the Hudson River School's embrace of our region's natural beauty and the spirit of transcendentalism, the Victorian craze for seances, a growing preservationism movement, the regions majestic indigenous trees and their silent destroyers, developments in the practice of psychology (and their local connections), and more.

Sign up for the October 29th discussion using the link below. Then drop by the library circulation desk to request receive a free copy of the book while supplies last.

 A limited number of copies are also available for borrowing. 

Or use this link to sign up for the next North Woods Book Dicussion, on November 7th. 

New discussion groups will be added in November in response to interest.

What is "Salisbury READS North Woods"?

The Read is a series of discussions and events centered around North Woods and its themes. By encouraging the community to read North Woods and making copies available (50 giveaway copies, 50 free copies for event participants, and extra books for borrowing at the library), we hope to spark a shared experience of reading and community conversation. The library is partnering with the Salisbury Association and collaborating with other local organizations to bring you a series of varied activities that will run from mid-October through March.

Why North Woods?

North Woods is a sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries.

Widely admired by Scoville Library members (as well as critics and the media), this novel has been chosen for its literary inventiveness, its captivating sweep of human struggle and historical change, its brilliance, stunning style, and broad appeal, and its resonance with our own area's history, natural beauty, woodlands, wildlife, cultural shifts, and environmental changes. It also features heirloom apples, music, mysterious murders, forbidden love, family strife, passionate freethinkers, a mad pseudo-scientist, a renegade artist, devious criminals, the secret lives of trees, heroism, terror, romance, suspense, heartbreak, and homicidal ghosts.

Critics have called North Woods "brilliant," "dazzling," and "a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic." Whether you've already read it, were waiting to buy it in paperback (now available), or just want to find out what all the accolades are about, we hope you'll join us for this first-ever community read!

More about North Woods

North Woods is a Washington Post Top Ten Book of the Year; Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award; and named a Best Book of the Year by Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Bookreporter. 

For more about North Woods and the Salisbury READ, please visit our the Salisbury READ Launch page.

Thanks for joining the discussion!