eBook Thirteen Moons: A Novel ePub

Hardcover Limited Edition: Autographed by author; numbered and slipcasedThis magnificent novel by one of America’s finest writers is the epic of one man’s remarkable journey, set in nineteenth-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home. In a card game with a white Indian named Featherstone, Will wins – for a brief moment – a mysterious girl named Claire, and his passion and desire for her spans this novel. As Will’s destiny intertwines with the fate of the Cherokee Indians – including a Cherokee Chief named Bear – he learns how to fight and survive in the face of both nature and men, and eventually, under the Corn Tassel Moon, Will begins the fight against Washington City to preserve the Cherokee’s homeland and culture. And he will come to know the truth behind his belief that “only desire trumps time.” Brilliantly imagined, written with great power and beauty by a master of American fiction, Thirteen Moons is a stunning novel about a man’s passion for a woman, and how loss, longing and love can shape a man’s destiny over the many moons of a life.“Fascinating…Reading Thirteen Moons is an intoxicating experience…This is 21st-century literary fiction at its very best.”–BookPage “Thirteen Moons is rare in many ways and occupies a literary plane of such height that reviewing it is not really salient….Thirteen Moons has the power to inspire great performances from succeeding generations of writers….For those who simply value the literary experience, Thirteen Moons will provide the immense satisfaction of taking a literary journey of magnitude. Whether on a plane, in an office or curled in a window seat, readers who absorb Will's story will find their own lives enriched….Thirteen Moons belongs to the ages.”–Los Angeles Times “Once again, we are in the hands of an assured writer who knows how to bring history to life…Gorgeous.”–New Orleans Times Picayune “Magical…the history lesson in Thirteen Moons is fascinating and moving…You will find much to admire and savor in Thirteen Moons.”–USA Today“Incredibly powerful.”–Melissa Block on NPR All Things Considered“Verdict: A powerhouse second act….a brilliant success…Frazier's second act should convince everyone that he's here to stay. It is a powerful, dramatic, often surprising and memorable novel.”–Atlanta Journal Constitution“Thirteen Moons is a boisterous, confident novel that draws from the epic tradition... Frazier is a natural storyteller, and throughout his picaresque tale are grand themes and eulogies”–Boston Globe“Warm hearted…Frazier is a remarkably meticulous and tasteful writer… Thirteen Moons is a worthy successor to the first novel and a highly readable book.”–Seattle Times“Fiction of the highest order…Another indelible character. Charles Frazier has a knack for them.”–Charlotte Observer“Splendidly written.”–New York Daily News“What a story!... Frazier's creation, Will Cooper, is utterly charismatic….Frazier's genius lies in his ability to convey emotions that feel pure and genuine…It was worth the wait.”–Dayton Daily News“To Charles Frazier, words are playthings. Like very few other contemporary American novelists, he puts them together in such a way that they can transform an otherwise mundane moment, scene or conversation into one that is transcendent….No sophomore jinx here. Reading a Frazier novel is like listening to a fine symphony. He's a maestro whose pen is his baton, beckoning the best that each sentence has to offer. And just as you wouldn't rush a conductor, you should take the time to savor Frazier’s work, to take in each thought, to relish the turn of phrase or the imagery of a craftsman.”–Denver Post“Two for two…Here is a book brimming with vivid, adventurous incident…Charles Frazier set himself a daunting challenge with this book. He set out to write a historical novel that was retrospective and meditative, yet still vibrant and immediate with life. Thirteen Moons succeeds in classy fashion.”–Raleigh News & Observer“If current fiction is anything to go by, it’s hard for a novelist to make Santayana's puzzle pieces - lyricism, comedy, tragedy - fit together, as they do in real life and real history. Frazier has done it…Thirteen Moons makes you feel that change that happened so long before our own time, and makes you mourn it.”–Newsday“[Thirteen Moons] is superbly entertaining, and it packs enough emotional heft to measure up to most readers’ high expectations.”–Richmond Times-Dispatch “Thirteen Moons is a fitting successor to Cold Mountain…fans of Frazier's debut will be cheered to discover that the new book is another compulsively readable work of historical fiction.”–St. Louis Post-Dispatch “If there is any doubt that Frazier is an incredibly gifted storyteller - and not just a lucky name or a one-hit wonder - it will be put to rest with the publication of Thirteen Moons. Within 10 pages, this long-awaited new novel bears the reader swiftly out of the waking world into its own imagined universe like nothing else published this year.”–Minneapolis Star Tribune“Achingly beautiful descriptions of nature…It’s rich, it’s beautiful.”–Columbia State“Forget the sophomore jinx. Frazier demonstrates that Cold Mountain was no one-hit wonder with this fully realized historical novel again set in the South….Again, Frazier shows himself a master of landscape and language, both often fresh and surprising in his telling.–Seattle Post-Intelligencer“Thirteen Moons contains achingly beautiful passages of snowfalls, fog-wrapped rivers and moonlit forests. There are ribald and hilarious events, too, including a description of the Cherokee Booger Dance that is a masterpiece of satire. The love affair between Cooper and Claire threads its way through this pseudo-historic epic like a brilliant, scarlet ribbon. There is also a melancholy refrain that celebrates a wondrous time and place that is gone and will never return.”–Smoky Mountain News

JoJolar

If you love history, you'll love this story. Some of the things amazed me, like the responsibility given to 12 year old boy, running a trading post, and working off his "bound" obligation. And the history of the Cherokee nation and others in the area. At first I didnt realize that when they were talking about going as far West as possible, they were talking about the Mississippi River and not California. So, this made it a fresh story, one that I had not read before. While they have a disclaimer in the back that you cant believe everything you read in the book, much I was able to verify elsewhere, so I think they were just covering their backs. It is a good way to experience what life was like back then, including love lost and won, traditions, attitudes, wages/trading, land ownership, cross-cultures. The author works out ways to add a lot of educational material to the story without sounding like a lecture (like having the white boy adopted by an Indian chef and really understand their way of living from the boy's perspective...oh, and yes, the story does carry on to his adulthood) This was not a "dry" book, but full of adventures, and moved along at a good pace. I really liked the main character, and cared about him, and those he became attached to.

Jieylau

I should start by saying that I'm the type of reader who inhales books, admittedly usually reading far too quickly and then moving on without committing a whole lot of a book to memory. "Thirteen Moons" was a tremendous exception. The best way I have of describing Charles Frazier's writing here is to compare it to a hard candy that has some sort of amazing flavor -- something that you just want to keep sucking on and savoring until it's whittled down to nothing.

There are more than a few reviewers who have criticized this novel for the same reason that I praise it, and it could be that those readers weren't looking to sit down and "smell the roses" of some truly beautiful descriptions of scenes, feelings and situations, as this is the most savory writing I've come across in a very long time. The author truly seems to enable the reader to inhabit this lost world, and that's a sign not just of talent, but of outstanding commitment to a sense of place and time, serving to remind anyone interested in writing fiction that setting is more than just a background -- when done with such precision, it's a character in itself.

Will is a dynamic character who literally grows up as an eyewitness to a tragic period of American history. While Frazier could have easily fallen into the disappointing "noble savage" theme that all too often characterizes attempts at stories centered on indigenous people, he has instead taken the time to breathe life, noble and ignoble, into the Cherokee characters. (I adored Bear.) The historical research is so meticulous and this era is so painstakingly created that, with the exception of actual eyewitness accounts, I daresay there's very little else that truly invites the reader to examine and inhabit this period of history in such detail.

Will is a character who truly grows and changes in his attitudes, actions and worldviews over the course of the novel. The love story is a bit less finely-drawn, as the character of Claire never seems fully developed, and the reader never truly knows how she feels about Will, how she feels about her husband, or even how she really feels about removal, despite the fact that she is among the removed. As a whole, female characters don't seem to be Charles Frazier's strong suit -- characters like Will here and Inman in "Cold Mountain" have always felt more real and relatable to me than have any of his women, with the possible exception of Ada Monroe in "Mountain."

A glorious effort I was truly sorry to see end. I bookmarked many passages and will no doubt be reading "Thirteen Moons" more than once over the years.

Ballalune

Cold Mountain was a literary success: its setting, characters, and themes made it a great novel that became a great movie.
Frazier has done it again. His imagined characters, their relationships, the historic detail, the setting, the philosophic commentary of the literate backwoods narrator--all these and more make this work of fiction a wonderful reading experience.
I was especially impressed with the voice of the narrator: due to Frazier's expert creation of his first person narrator, he was able to achieve a literary style of admirable dimentions. The language is inventive in its diversity. Descriptions are a treat to the minds eye. Cliches are rendered new. Similes and other figures of speech abound, newly invented. In short, this reader loved the use language in this novel. There is much to be appreciated in this novel, so full of life from a wonderful observer.

Celen

A masterful story of a difficult time for native Americans, the South and a developing country. Frazier know his country well. A better novel is rarely found.

Andronrad

Well...to start off, I read the book twice and listened to the audio at least 7 times. That should tell you how much I liked the book!
This historically based novel has it all...life, love, adventure, sadness, and war. Exhaustive research my the master story-teller Charles Frazier reveals the life stories of the four main characters in the midst of a young nation's growing pains.
And what a great movie it could be!
Also let me mention the audio version, read by Will Patton. Like I said above, I have listened to it seven times...now going on eight. Will is the best at his trade.
Advice: Purchase the UNABRIDGED version of the audio, which contains 13 CDs. The abridged version has only 5.
Eddie
Brooks, GA.

Blackbrand

While everyone agrees Charles Frazier can and does write beautifully but the story is implausible. A 12 year old boy gets sent into the wilderness makes a wrong turn and ends up exactly where he was headed ??? The next day he running a trading post and negotiating with everyone as if he has considerable experience when in fact he has none. We first meet Featherstone at a hunting cabin and the boy plays cards with adult men all night while drinking liquor for the first time but wins all the money. Four years later, Featherstone who comes off as a thug in the cabin, is suddenly very wealthy living in a southern mansion with slaves, fine wines, wonderful books and vast land holdings. How and when did that happen? The character of Clair is a complete mystery and extremely hard to believe. I respect very much Frazier's writing skills but the story just was not believable. Sorry I wish it was better.