When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy, and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave - only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
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THEY had come to the spot in the freshness of June, chased from the village by its people, threading deer path through the forest, the valleys, the fern groves, and the quaking bogs.- One
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(John Murray, 19 September 2023, e-galley, 384 pages, copy from the publisher via NetGalley)
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I had a great time reading North Woods. I wanted to read it as soon as I read the blurred, something appealed to me and thankfully I wasn't disappointed. The book uses an unusual narrative structure in that the story seems to be focalised through this strange cabin in the woods as if it's the central character. This works really well. The book is made up of linked stories, songs, poems, letters, and articles with the cabin at the centre of it all. I loved the setting the way the author describes nature. It's a captivating, engrossing read.
