When Maggie O’Farrell has a quote on the cover saying ‘a monumental achievement…I loved it’, then I tend to sit up and take note! This is exquisite literary fiction and I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes the Booker Longlist next year (you heard it here first!) North Woods covers four centuries in the life of a single house deep in the woods of New England. With an array of protagonists each with their own distinct voice, I was dazzled by the prose and skill of author Daniel Mason. The story is clever and profound and contains the most beautiful expositions on the natural world I have ever come across. Best read in a quiet place where ideally you don’t have to put it down for more than a day or two because you don’t want to risk losing the threads of this intricately woven novel.