Country People BOOK REVIEW

• Date Published:
  July, 2026
• Length:
  320 pages—Listening Time: 9 hours 17 minutes
• Genre:
  Fiction
• Setting:
  Contemorary times; primarily in Greensbury, Vermont
• Awards
  The Guardian Book of the Day 07-07-2026; Good Morning America Book Club Pick July, 2026; New York Times Bestseller 2026
• Languages:
  English
• Sensitive Aspects:
  Uurban–rural stereotyping and caricature of “country people,” satire of academics, portrayal of marital fragility and relationship strain, mild class and cultural snobbery, gentle ridicule of intellectual pretension and “city people with rural-life pretensions,” light mockery of religious or quasi-spiritual credulity, scenes of physical discomfort and minor hazards in rural settings (cold, frostbite anecdotes, inconveniences), emotional themes of misguided ambition and professional failure, depiction of community gossip and social exclusion, dog misbehavior and property damage used as comic relief
• Movie
  There are currently no movie adaptations of Country People. Because the book was just released on July 7, 2026, it is too new to have a film version.
• Recommended for Book Club:
  Yes

If you’ve ever suspected that “country people” and “city people” might as well be different species entirely, Daniel Mason’s Country People is about to make you feel very seen—and then promptly make you laugh until you snort.

This is not a quiet, polite little novel. No, this book is a full-on tumble down the proverbial rabbit hole, the kind where you think you’ve got your footing and then—bam—you’re sliding headfirst into something far more absurd, tender, and wildly entertaining than you expected. One minute you’re chuckling, the next you’re wiping your eyes, and somewhere in between you’re wondering how Mason manages to make human contradictions feel so painfully accurate and so hilarious at the same time.

You and I both know we all carry a few assumptions about “country people.” Maybe they’re slower, simpler, and closer to nature. And “city people”? Overcaffeinated, overly ambitious, possibly incapable of assembling their own furniture without emotional damage. Mason takes those stereotypes, gives them a knowing wink, and then gleefully turns them inside out.

And then there’s the setting contrast—because what’s a good cultural standoff without geography getting involved? Picture the damp, crunchy, eucalyptus-scented sprawl of West Coast California colliding (at least in spirit) with the crisp, maple-syrup-and-stone-walls sensibility of East Coast Vermont. If those two places were at a dinner party together, they’d politely disagree about everything from weather to wine to what counts as “real life.” Mason captures that same delicious tension, but with characters you’ll recognize a little too well.

What makes Country People so utterly delightful is how it invites you in with humor and then quietly sneaks in something deeper. It’s sharp without being cruel, observant without feeling heavy, and—perhaps most dangerously—so funny you might find yourself snort-laughing in public. (Consider yourself warned.)

So if you’re in the mood for a novel that feels like eavesdropping on the most entertaining conversation you’ve ever heard—one that just happens to say something smart about who we are and how we live—you’re going to want to keep reading.

In Country People by Daniel Mason, a Californian academic family relocates to rural Vermont for a year. The husband, a floundering doctoral student, navigates midlife by exploring the countryside and bizarre local lore, while the eccentric locals and harsh seasons test his marriage, imagination, and sense of purpose.

Miles Krzelewski is the book’s lovable, distracted, and mildly floundering protagonist. At 45, he has spent 14 years stuck on his PhD dissertation about folklore. Kate Petrosian, Miles’s wife, is an ambitious, highly successful English professor and a major pillar of support for her family, while Wesley and Olive, their two school-aged children, have quirks, imaginations, and anxieties of their own as they adapt to country life. And then there is Giuseppe, the family’s Italian truffle-hunting dog who exudes personality.

The Greensbury, Vermont locals include a highly eccentric, colorful cast of characters that includes a snowflake photographer, a scythe-mad biochemist, and locals who claim Vermont’s caves lead to a fantastical subterranean world.

When Kate is offered a visiting professorship at a college in Vermont, the Krzelewski-Petrosian family packs up and leaves northern California for a year. Hoping the change will finally give him the peace and space to finish his lingering PhD on Russian folktales, Miles takes on the role of primary caregiver. Instead of writing his thesis, Miles discovers an entirely new world. He quickly becomes enamored with the rural landscape and deeply entangled with his quirky neighbors. He learns about local rat migration paths, picks up scything, and is eventually drawn into a docent-led hiking group that believes in an arcane local legend about an underground kingdom connected to the local caves.

Over the course of an eventful academic year, the family grapples with the transition from the West Coast to New England. As the seasons turn and winter sets in, the family faces isolation, old marital insecurities, and the general comedy of trying to adjust to rural American life. Ultimately, the book is a pastoral comedy exploring family, the nature of belief, and the power of storytelling.

If you imagine yourself rolling your eyes at city vs. country clichés, laughing at academic pretensions, and then suddenly catching your breath at a line that hits a little too close to home… this one belongs on your nightstand. You should absolutely read Country People, and here’s why.

It’s laugh-out-loud funny… in a “oh no, that’s me” way

Mason has a wicked eye for the tiny, ridiculous moments that make up real life—especially family life in a new place. You’re not just amused; you’re caught, gently, in recognition. The humor lands because it’s built out of things you’ve probably done, thought, or silently judged.

The academic angle is oddly delightful

A Milton scholar and a folklorist-in-progress moving to rural Vermont? That’s catnip if you like books about readers, thinkers, and slightly frazzled intellectuals trying to live in the real world. The tension between grand ideas (Paradise Lost, folklore, culture) and very concrete realities (kids, money, weather, home repairs) gives the story a smart, layered feel without ever getting stuffy.

It nails the “big move” feeling

If you’ve ever moved for someone’s job, uprooted kids, or tried to start over somewhere that doesn’t quite feel like “yours” yet, this book will ring painfully true. It captures that strange cocktail of hope, resentment, excitement, and exhaustion that comes with packing up your old life and betting on a new one. You feel the stakes without needing melodrama.

Country vs. city people is treated with nuance and snark

Mason has fun with stereotypes—West Coast vs. East Coast, urban vs. rural—but he doesn’t leave them as cardboard cutouts. You’ll get plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments where Californians look precious and Vermonters look gruff, but beneath that, the book keeps asking, "Who actually understands what matters here, and who’s just pretending?"

The family dynamics are tender and sharp at the same time

Miles, his wife, and their two kids are never reduced to “types.” You see the frayed edges of their conversations, the unspoken guilt of moving for one partner’s career, the quiet ways children absorb change. It’s emotionally intelligent without turning into a therapy session on the page. You care about them, even when they’re being a bit ridiculous.

It’s perfect for book clubs

There’s so much to talk about: ambition, marriage, parenting, class, regional identity, the gap between how we imagine a place and how it actually feels to live there. You can go light (funny stories about moving disasters) or deep (what we owe our partners and kids when we chase our own work). It’s rich material for a real conversation, not just “Did you like it?”

It respects your intelligence but still feels cozy

Country People doesn’t talk down to you or spoon-feed its themes, yet it’s incredibly readable. You get smart observations, beautiful little details, and prose that flows, while still having that “curl up with a blanket and keep going” vibe. It’s the rare book that’s both thought-provoking and comforting.

Here’s a curated list of read-alikes for Country People that will appeal to readers who loved Mason’s mix of wit, warmth, and smart observation.

North Woods by Daniel Mason
A generational novel set in a single New England house, North Woods follows the lives, hauntings, and histories that accumulate around one patch of land, blending realism with the uncanny and the deeply human. If you loved how Country People turns a Vermont landscape into a living, story-filled presence, you’ll enjoy how North Woods does something similar on a grander, more haunting scale.

Stoner by John Williams
This quiet, devastating classic traces the life of an ordinary Midwestern academic, William Stoner, as he navigates teaching, marriage, disappointment, and small, hard-won moments of meaning. If Country People hooked you with its portrait of a man wrestling with work, family, and the weight of unrealized ambition, Stoner will speak to that same ache—just with a more somber, elegiac tone.

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
Set around two couples connected by a New York City church, this novel explores faith, doubt, marriage, parenting, and vocation through the shifting dynamics of long relationships. If you appreciated Country People for its emotionally intelligent look at partnership, purpose, and the compromises of adult life, The Dearly Beloved offers similarly nuanced character work with a focus on belief and community.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
In Fairy Tale, a lonely teen inherits a mysterious house, a dog, and—most importantly—a locked shed that turns out to be a portal to an entire hidden world beneath our own. King doesn’t just hint at an underground kingdom; he builds it brick by brick: a full, strange, dangerous realm with its own rules, history, politics, and creeping darkness. Readers who loved Country People for its sense that Vermont’s woods hold more stories than meet the eye will enjoy how Fairy Tale takes that idea and runs gloriously wild with it, turning “what might be under our feet” into an epic, character-driven adventure that still feels grounded in real human emotion.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
This classic about two academic couples and their decades-long friendship offers a luminous look at marriage, ambition, illness, and the way place—especially the American landscape—shapes a life. If Country People drew you in with its campus setting, rural atmosphere, and deep attention to the complexities of long-term relationships, Crossing to Safety will feel like its wise, older cousin.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The first in the Neapolitan series, this novel tracks the intense, complicated friendship between two girls growing up in a working-class Naples neighborhood, with razor-sharp insight into class, gender, and identity. Fans of Country People who loved the way Mason uses a small setting to explore big questions about who we become—and how others see us—will appreciate Ferrante’s unflinching, deeply immersive style.

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
A darkly comic novel about a family of performance artists whose adult children return home, prompting chaos, reckoning, and unexpected tenderness. If you liked Country People for its snot-laugh humor, its exploration of parenthood, and its balance of absurdity with real emotional stakes, The Family Fang offers a similarly offbeat, heartfelt look at what it means to grow up in a very peculiar family.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Set in a fading mill town in Maine, Empire Falls follows Miles Roby, a decent but chronically stuck man, as he navigates family entanglements, small-town politics, and the slow grind of economic decline. Like Country People, it’s funny, humane, and deeply attentive to how place shapes people’s dreams and disappointments, so readers who loved Mason’s blend of wry humor, community dynamics, and a good-hearted, slightly adrift protagonist will feel right at home in Russo’s world.

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