Cold Mountain - Softcover

Frazier, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802142842 ISBN 13: 9780802142849

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006

Synopsis

In 1997, Charles Frazier's debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier's eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

About this title

Review:

Charles Frazier's debut novel, Cold Mountain, is the story of a very long walk. In the waning months of the Civil War, a wounded Confederate veteran named Inman gets up from his hospital bed and begins the long journey back to his home in the remote hills of North Carolina. Along the way he meets rogues and outlaws, Good Samaritans and vigilantes, people who help and others who hinder, but through it all Inman's aim is true: his one goal is to return to Cold Mountain and to Ada, the woman he left behind. The object of his affection, meanwhile, has problems of her own. Raised in the rarified air of Charleston society, Ada was brought to the backwoods of Cold Mountain by her father, a preacher who came to the country for his health. Even after her father's death, Ada remains there, partly to wait for Inman, but also because she senses her destiny lies not in the city but in the North Carolina Blue Ridge.

Cold Mountain is the story of two parallel journeys: Inman's physical trek across the American landscape and Ada's internal odyssey toward an understanding of herself. What makes Frazier's novel so satisfying is the depth of detail surrounding both journeys. Frazier based this story on family history, and in the characters of Inman and Ada he has paid a rich compliment to their historical counterparts. Cold Mountain is, quite simply, a wonderful book.

Review:

"A Whitmanesque foray into America: into its hugeness, its freshness, its scope and its soul." -James Polk, "The New York Times Book Review"

"An astonishing debut . . . a genuinely romantic saga that attains the status of literature."--Malcolm Jones, "Newsweek"

"As close to a masterpiece as American writing is going to come these days." -Fred Chappell, "Raleigh News & Observer"

"Charles Frazier's feeling for the Southern landscape is reverential and beautifully composed. He has written an astonishing first novel." -Alfred Kazin, "The New York Review of Books"
A Whitmanesque foray into America: into its hugeness, its freshness, its scope and its soul. James Polk, "The New York Times Book Review"
An astonishing debut . . . a genuinely romantic saga that attains the status of literature. Malcolm Jones, "Newsweek"
As close to a masterpiece as American writing is going to come these days. Fred Chappell, "Raleigh News & Observer"
Charles Frazier s feeling for the Southern landscape is reverential and beautifully composed. He has written an astonishing first novel. Alfred Kazin, "The New York Review of Books"
"
A Whitmanesque foray into America: into its hugeness, its freshness, its scope and its soul. James Polk, The New York Times Book Review
An astonishing debut . . . a genuinely romantic saga that attains the status of literature. Malcolm Jones, Newsweek
As close to a masterpiece as American writing is going to come these days. Fred Chappell, Raleigh News & Observer
Charles Frazier s feeling for the Southern landscape is reverential and beautifully composed. He has written an astonishing first novel. Alfred Kazin, The New York Review of Books
"
"A Whitmanesque foray into America: into its hugeness, its freshness, its scope and its soul." -James Polk, The New York Times Book Review
"An astonishing debut . . . a genuinely romantic saga that attains the status of literature."--Malcolm Jones, Newsweek
"As close to a masterpiece as American writing is going to come these days." -Fred Chappell, Raleigh News & Observer
"Charles Frazier's feeling for the Southern landscape is reverential and beautifully composed. He has written an astonishing first novel." -Alfred Kazin, The New York Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0802142842
• ISBN 13: 9780802142849
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464