Country People
- Author Daniel Mason
- Publisher John Murray Press
- Publish Date 7 July 2026
- Run Time 9 hours and 18 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Generational sagas, Humorous fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction.
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Listen to a sample
What to expect
🍃 'THE BOOK OF THE SUMMER' Mick Herron 🍃
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA PICK
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NORTH WOODS
'This is, simply put, a JOYFUL book - and the deeper you dig, the more joyful it becomes'
Guardian
'Very FUNNY . . . a PERFECT SUMMER ESCAPE . . . as tasty and oddly shaped as an organic apple'
Financial Times
'Mason deftly delivers larks aplenty, POIGNANCY, gentle satire and some top-tier farce. Be warned that the latter may cause you to spontaneously erupt with mirth in public places. This book DISPELS GLOOM: go for it'
Irish Times
'There's genuine ENCHANTMENT in this earthy tale of city folk transplanted to rural New England . . . It's a WARM and delightfully whimsy free take on fables and family'
Mail on Sunday
'A CHARMING book about ambition, marriage and country living'
Sunday Times Style
'VIRTUOSIC'
R4 Front Row
'LYRICAL and JOYFUL'
Sarah Jessica Parker
'Told with WARMTH and WIT, Mason's prose shimmers in this immersive ode to stories, to the land, and its people' Lucy Steeds, author of The Artist
'A book to make the world feel a little LIGHTER, a little warmer'
Ron Charles
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 far away 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, who possesses, in Kate's, words, 'a great capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere'. Soon 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, a Shakespearean temptress, and a photographer of snowflakes - until at last he stumbles upon a bizarre local legend, which, he begins to suspect, might not be a legend at all.
🍃 A FAMILY'S NEW BEGINNING. THE LOCAL'S OLDEST LEGEND. 🍃
Praise for Daniel Mason
'A virtuoso' Mail on Sunday
'Has the born storyteller's gift' Daily Mail
'Genius' Washington Post
'Brave and original' Guardian
'Never fails to surprise and delight' Sunday Times
'Teases out the joy and meaning in the sometimes small lives of his characters' The Times
'Shows us what is possible when a writer lets his hair down' Financial Times
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA PICK
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NORTH WOODS
'This is, simply put, a JOYFUL book - and the deeper you dig, the more joyful it becomes'
Guardian
'Very FUNNY . . . a PERFECT SUMMER ESCAPE . . . as tasty and oddly shaped as an organic apple'
Financial Times
'Mason deftly delivers larks aplenty, POIGNANCY, gentle satire and some top-tier farce. Be warned that the latter may cause you to spontaneously erupt with mirth in public places. This book DISPELS GLOOM: go for it'
Irish Times
'There's genuine ENCHANTMENT in this earthy tale of city folk transplanted to rural New England . . . It's a WARM and delightfully whimsy free take on fables and family'
Mail on Sunday
'A CHARMING book about ambition, marriage and country living'
Sunday Times Style
'VIRTUOSIC'
R4 Front Row
'LYRICAL and JOYFUL'
Sarah Jessica Parker
'Told with WARMTH and WIT, Mason's prose shimmers in this immersive ode to stories, to the land, and its people' Lucy Steeds, author of The Artist
'A book to make the world feel a little LIGHTER, a little warmer'
Ron Charles
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 far away 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, who possesses, in Kate's, words, 'a great capacity to fall in with anyone, anywhere'. Soon 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, a Shakespearean temptress, and a photographer of snowflakes - until at last he stumbles upon a bizarre local legend, which, he begins to suspect, might not be a legend at all.
🍃 A FAMILY'S NEW BEGINNING. THE LOCAL'S OLDEST LEGEND. 🍃
Praise for Daniel Mason
'A virtuoso' Mail on Sunday
'Has the born storyteller's gift' Daily Mail
'Genius' Washington Post
'Brave and original' Guardian
'Never fails to surprise and delight' Sunday Times
'Teases out the joy and meaning in the sometimes small lives of his characters' The Times
'Shows us what is possible when a writer lets his hair down' Financial Times
Critics Review
A fantastical journey through family, folktales and a world beneath our feet . . . the whole thing is delivered in prose so witty and gorgeous that it calls to mind Nabokov's comic masterpiece Pnin, surely another of the book's literary antecedents. This is, put simply, a joyful book - and the deeper you dig, the more joyful it becomes
Mason deftly delivers larks aplenty, poignancy, gentle satire and some top-tier farce. Be warned that the latter may cause you to spontaneously erupt with mirth in public places. This book dispels gloom: go for it
Very funny . . . a perfect summer escape . . . as tasty and oddly shaped as an organic apple
There's genuine enchantment in this earthy tale of city folk transplanted to rural New England . . . It's a warm and delightfully whimsy free take on fables and family
Charming . . . a prescription for summer amusement that takes immediate effect . . . There's so much fine, freewheeling observation and pillowy erudition here, it's tempting just to sink in
Mason's prose is full of playful narrative sleights of hand . . . a treat
A charming book about ambition, marriage, and country living
Virtuosic
I was charmed . . . One of the books of the summer for me, everyone should be taking the book off to their sun loungers
Lyrical and joyful
Wonderful - full of joy - and exactly the kind of reading experience we could all do with right now. The book of the summer
Narrated in an arch, long-suffering voice that brings out the comic flavor like salt on caramel. Think of it as a companion to Andrew Sean Greer's Villa Coco. One comic novel this good feels lucky; two in the same summer feels like cheating . . . Tremendously endearing. Mason has written a comedy about a man who can't quite secure his place above ground but senses the wonder lurking just beneath our feet. That and a beloved Italian dog who digs through every pillow, sofa, and floor are all you really need for a book to make the world feel a little lighter, a little warmer
A rippling, rambunctious mystery that ricochets between the earthy and the sublime. Told with warmth and wit, Mason's prose shimmers in this immersive ode to stories, to the land, and its people
A charming, funny, exhilarating Vermont adventure
Superb. I was instantly drawn into Mason's bright, clever, wry world. There was so much to admire about the story with its terrestrial and subterrestrial layers, the fun Mason has with the preoccupations and contradictions of post-pandemic America, the warmth and love he shows for and between his characters, and the artful way he illuminates the power of community
Satirical but big-hearted and empathetic . . . Mason is a lively, fluid writer; here he glides smoothly between present and past, myth and everyday detail, skepticism and credulity. He has fun with his characters without making fun of them . . . It is simply put, very funny . . . Reading Country People in public I kept having to muffle my LOLs. That's never a bad sign. The affection that Mason clearly feels for Miles and his brood is infectious
MORE PRAISE FOR DANIEL MASON
A virtuoso
Has the born storyteller's gift
Genius
Brave and original
Never fails to surprise and delight
Teases out the joy and meaning in the sometimes small lives of his characters
Shows us what is possible when a writer lets his hair down
User Reviews
| Author | Daniel Mason |
|---|---|
| Duration | 9 hours and 18 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781399835046 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | John Murray Press |
| Genre | Generational sagas, Humorous fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE |
| Rating |
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| Narration |
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