Daniel Mason

Daniel Mason (born c. 1976) is an American novelist and physician. He is the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country and North Woods.

Biography He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and received a BA in biology from Harvard University, later graduating from the UCSF School of Medicine.

He wrote his first novel, The Piano Tuner (2002), while still a medical student. It was later the basis for a 2004 opera of the same name (composed by Nigel Osborne to a libretto by Amanda Holden). Mason's second novel, A Far Country, was published in March 2007. North Woods was published in 2023.

His work has been translated into 28 languages. In 2024 he received a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for North Woods. North Woods was shortlisted in 2025 for the Dublin Literary Award.

Mason is a psychiatrist affiliated with Stanford Hospital, and teaches literature at Stanford University. He is married to the novelist Sara Houghteling.

Books The Piano Tuner (2002) A Far Country (2007) Death of the Pugilist, or The Famous Battle of Jacob Burke & Blindman McGraw (2008) The Winter Soldier (2018) A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth (2020) North Woods (2023) Country People (2026)