Daniel Mason never thought he’d write a comedy. Then came Miles.

Arts & Culture

Daniel Mason never thought he’d write a comedy. Then came Miles.

© Sara Houghteling

Samantha Laine Perfas

Harvard Staff Writer

July 22, 2026

7 min read

Award-winning novelist details path he followed to write ‘Country People’

An academic superstar, her devoted husband, two kids, and dog pack up in the Bay Area of California and head out on a great American road trip to start the wife’s yearlong visiting professorship in rural Vermont.

So begins “Country People,” the fifth novel by award-winning author and psychiatrist Daniel Mason ’98. The story centers around the husband, Miles, as he tries to embrace small-town life and finish the dissertation he’s been nursing for 14 years, all while battling his own wandering sense of purpose and place in the world.

In an interview with the Gazette, Mason discussed how looking closely at some of life’s small but beautiful moments can be rich fodder for storytelling. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

What was the inspiration for the novel?

When I wrote my last book, “North Woods” (2023), I spent a year out in Western Mass., Southern Vermont, and upstate New York doing research, and there were a number of characters there that remained with me even after I was done.

I also found myself continuing to think about the comedy of our family of city people picking up for a year and trying out rural life — with all our preconceptions and fantasies about what that might be.

I started writing little scenes, not thinking it would actually become anything. Over time I was more drawn in by Miles and after a few months I decided, “OK, I’m going to try this.”

The book is very playful. Was the creative process the same?

Definitely. My other books use humor from time to time, but it’s often accidental or incidental. “North Woods” had a bit more, but I’d never deliberately set out to write a comedy.

At first I was quite worried about that —…