Earsay: The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
Jul 23, 2026 · 25 min · 11 segments
Today, we're joined by novelist Daniel Mason to explore the quietly enchanted world of *Country People*, his warmest and funniest novel yet. An academic California family lands in rural Vermont for a…
Daniel MasonGuest
Kal PennHost
Um, look, there's a real depth and beauty to your novel, but it's funny and it's warm and ultimately a, a loving story.
So I wanted to start with your main character, Miles, and I'll set this up for our listeners.
Um, there's something in this journey that speaks to a, a sort of failure, but also to humanity.
He's curious, he's present, open, and he's complicated, which whenever we do these is always a, a real favorite of mine.
Um, and that feels like a major theme of this novel that maybe we aren't ever complete and that there is always more to discover.
You know, I think that he's somebody who constitutionally has an inability to finish something in, in, in our modern world means that I think like on the surface, like a lot of his life seems like a kind of failure.
But at the same time, his great gift is his ability to just be interested in almost anything and open to anybody that he meets.
And as a result, he was a very enjoyable character to spend a lot of time with because he's like constantly falling down one path or another.
Do you, um, do you relate to Miles more or less than Kate, his wife? I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about it in a second.
I l-- I also tend to approach things, I think, in a weird aspirational way, and so I was just thinking as I was listening like, I wonder what you relate to more.
Um, at o- at one point it took me fourteen years to finish a book, so Miles is at year twelve-
Um, look, there's a real depth and beauty to your novel, but it's funny and it's warm and ultimately a, a loving story.
So I wanted to start with your main character, Miles, and I'll set this up for our listeners.
Um, there's something in this journey that speaks to a, a sort of failure, but also to humanity.
He's curious, he's present, open, and he's complicated, which whenever we do these is always a, a real favorite of mine.
Um, and that feels like a major theme of this novel that maybe we aren't ever complete and that there is always more to discover.
You know, I think that he's somebody who constitutionally has an inability to finish something in, in, in our modern world means that I think like on the surface, like a lot of his life seems like a kind of failure.
But at the same time, his great gift is his ability to just be interested in almost anything and open to anybody that he meets.
And as a result, he was a very enjoyable character to spend a lot of time with because he's like constantly falling down one path or another.
Do you, um, do you relate to Miles more or less than Kate, his wife? I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk about it in a second.
I l-- I also tend to approach things, I think, in a weird aspirational way, and so I was just thinking as I was listening like, I wonder what you relate to more.
Um, at o- at one point it took me fourteen years to finish a book, so Miles is at year twelve-
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