At its core, this is a fictional biography of a house in the New England woods, showing how the lives and actions of its residents echo through three centuries. It’s a book in which all the component parts are brilliant on their own, with different tones and even formats, but they still form a meaningful and narratively satisfying whole.
Published in 2023, this is one of the newest books I’ve read this year (I’ve been reading a lot, mostly older books), but it has a timeless feel. Mason’s prose is consistently beautiful, and he does an expert job of using elaborate, descriptive language without ever overwhelming the story or slowing the pace. It’s a hard book to put down, and each period of the house’s history sticks with the reader in a way that the smallest of callbacks can introduce dread or a smile. It has a clockwork quality; it all works together in a way that reads as effortless but must have involved a great deal of design.
I loved this book so much that I started going back through Mason’s other work. I've enjoyed everything I’ve read to this point, and he’s quickly become one of my favorite authors working today.
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—“a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
“With the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.”—San Francisco Chronicle
This is a really compelling book, technically a novel that reads like narrative nonfiction. It’s the story of the Czechoslovakian operation to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, director of the Gestapo and a man so evil he stood out for it even among the Nazis. It’s also the story of the men charged with carrying out that mission and Heydrich’s life leading up to his arrival in Prague. Along with all that, it’s the story of how Laurent Binet researched and wrote the book.
I admit I was skeptical about the meta aspect when this book was recommended to me; it felt like it could be distracting or too on the nose. I was pleased to find that it usually used that device well, letting Binet address uncertainty in the official record, critique other works on the same subject, or introduce asides that are interesting in their own right. But the central story and the inevitable meeting of the real-life characters stand out. this book is also a propulsive read, with many short chapters leading up to the story’s thrilling climax. It’s a hard book to put down, as entertaining as it is informative, and a story I’ll remember for a long time.
Two men have been enlisted to kill the head of the Gestapo. This is Operation Anthropoid, Prague, 1942: two Czechoslovakian parachutists sent on a daring mission by London to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich - chief of the Nazi secret services, 'the hangman of Prague', 'the blond beast', 'the most dangerous man in the Third Reich'. His boss is Heinrich Himmler but everyone in the SS says 'Himmler's brain is called Heydrich', which in German spells HHhH.
HHhH is a panorama of the Third Reich told through the life of one outstandingly brutal man, a story of unbearable heroism…
There were a lot of contenders for the last spot on this list, but I’ll go with this engrossing magic realism work by Peter Beagle.
This book is about Jenny, an American girl whose mother remarries and moves them to a manor farm in Dorset, in the English countryside. Jenny is a modern teenager thrown into the context of a Victorian ghost story; soon, she meets the titular character, a teenage ghost who has blocked out how she died. The world-building and mythology are wonderful, introducing the audience and Jenny to Tamsin’s experiences in life and to the other ghosts and creatures who have related and unfinished business. There’s a mystery element, too, as Jenny tries to learn about Tamsin’s death and what happened to the suitor whose fate Tamsin can’t recall.
Beagle’s The Last Unicorn was one of my favorite fantasy stories since I saw the movie as a small child (and I still love it), but I hadn’t read any of his other books until this year. I’m glad I changed that.
Arriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings until she meets Tamsin. Since her death over 300 years ago, Tamsin has haunted the lonely estate without rest, trapped by a hidden trauma she can't remember, and a powerful evil even the spirits of night cannot name. To help her, Jenny must delve deeper into the dark world than any human has in hundreds of years, and face danger that will change her life forever.
The stories in my book all deal in some way with mythology, from animal fables to imaginary friends to the myths people tell themselves.
In some cases, the myths are fantastical: a farmer finds his cow has given birth to a surprising offspring; a guitarist tries to improve his skills with a visit to the crossroads; or a young girl meets with a visitor in the woods to plot against her neighbors.
Others concern everyday mythology: a small-town ballplayer struggles to earn a nickname; a man’s clean bill of health arrives at the worst possible time; or a long-retired screen actress receives a letter that makes her confront her past.
