Country People
novel · First published 2026
Author guide
Daniel Mason Books in Order
Daniel Mason is an American novelist and physician who studied biology at Harvard and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. His debut novel, The Piano Tuner, was published in 2002. He is also the author of A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, the short-story collection A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, North Woods, Country People, and the separately published short-fiction volume Death of the Pugilist, or The Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw. Mason is an associate professor in Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
literary fictionhistorical fictionshort stories
Catalog record updated .
Daniel Mason's Newest Book
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Piano Tuner
The debut novel and a natural chronological entry point to Mason's fiction.
North Woods
A representative later novel and one of Mason's most acclaimed works.
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth
The best starting point for Mason's short fiction.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (5)
- The Piano Tuner
novel · 2002
"In October 1886, Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the British War Office: he must leave his wife and his quiet life in London to travel to the jungles of Burma, where a rare Erard grand piano is in need of repair. The piano…
- A Far Country
novel · 2007
From the bestselling author of The Piano Tuner, a stunning novel about a young girl’s journey through a vast, unnamed country in search of her brother.Fourteen-year-old Isabel was born in a remote village with the gift and curse of…
- The Winter Soldier
novel · 2018
"Vienna, 1914. Lucius is a twenty-two-year-old medical student when World War I explodes across Europe. Enraptured by romantic tales of battlefield surgery, he enlists, expecting a position at a well-organized field hospital. But when he…
- North Woods
novel · 2023
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…
- Country People
novel · 2026
Short fiction (2)
- Death of the Pugilist, or The Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw
short-story-collection · 2008
- A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth
short-story-collection · 2020
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist: This collection of moving short stories is “a treasure trove of lush scene setting in faraway times and places” (Alexis Burling, San Francisco Chronicle). On a fateful flight, a balloonist makes a discovery that…
Frequently asked questions about Daniel Mason
Is Daniel Mason a doctor as well as an author?
Yes. Mason is a physician and psychiatrist, a novelist, and an associate professor in Stanford University’s Department of Psychiatry.
Sources: danielmasonbooks.com (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)
Where did Daniel Mason study, and what did he do before becoming famous?
He studied biology at Harvard, researched malaria near the Thai–Myanmar border, and then studied medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He began writing his first novel while he was a medical student.
Sources: penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)arts.gov (opens in a new tab)penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)
How has psychiatry influenced Daniel Mason’s writing?
Mason says psychiatry and fiction inform each other: clinical work helps him enter characters’ inner worlds, while fiction sharpens his understanding of patients’ stories and experiences.
Sources: med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)
What awards has Daniel Mason won or been shortlisted for?
His honors include a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and the California Book Award. A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth was a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist, while North Woods was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Sources: danielmasonbooks.com (opens in a new tab)commonwealthclub.org (opens in a new tab)pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)bookcritics.org (opens in a new tab)
What is Daniel Mason best known for?
He is best known for The Piano Tuner, his debut novel, which became an international bestseller, was translated into 28 languages, and was adapted for theatre and opera.
Sources: arts.gov (opens in a new tab)penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)danielmasonbooks.com (opens in a new tab)