Charles Frazierâ??s Thirteen Moons is the story of one manâ??s remarkable life, spanning a century of relentless change. At the age of twelve, an orphan named Will Cooper is given a horse, a key, and a map and is sent on a journey through the wilderness to the edge of the Cherokee Nation, the uncharted white space on the map. Will is a bound boy, obliged to run a remote Indian trading post. As he fulfills his lonesome duty, Will finds a father in Bear, a Cherokee chief, and is adopted by him and his people, developing relationships that ultimately forge Willâ??s character. All the while, his love of Claire, the enigmatic and captivating charge of volatile and powerful Featherstone, will forever rule Willâ??s heart.In a distinct voice filled with both humor and yearning, Will tells of a
… read more...lifelong search for home, the hunger for fortune and adventure, the rebuilding of a trampled culture, and above all an enduring pursuit of passion. As he comes to realize, â??When all else is lost and gone forever, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time."Will Cooper, in the hands of Charles Frazier, becomes a classic American soul: a man devoted to a place and its people, a woman, and a way of life, all of which are forever just beyond his reach. Thirteen Moons takes us from the uncharted wilderness of an unspoiled continent, across the South, up and down the Mississippi, and to the urban clamor of a raw Washington City. Throughout, Will is swept along as the wild beauty of the nineteenth century gives way to the telephones, automobiles, and encroaching railways of the twentieth. Steeped in history, rich in insight, and filled with moments of sudden beauty, Thirteen Moons is an unforgettable work of fiction by an American master.PRAISE FOR THIRTEEN MOONSâ??Genius.â?â??Time â??Gorgeousâ?¦Thirteen Moons calls Cold Mountain to mind in its wonder at the natural world; its pacificist undercurrents; its dismay at the dismantling of what matters, and its convication that one love, no matter how tortured and inexplicable, can be life-definingâ?¦fascinatingâ?¦vivid and alive.â?â??Newsweek â??Thirteen Moons is rare in many ways and occupies a literary plane of such height that reviewing it is not really salientâ?¦.Thirteen Moons has the power to inspire great performances from succeeding generations of writersâ?¦.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 enrichedâ?¦.Thirteen Moons belongs to the ages.â?â??Los Angeles Times â??Thirteen Moons brings this vanished world thrillingly to lifeâ?¦One of the great Native American, and American stories, and a great gift to all of us, from one of our very best writers.â?« â??Kirkus Reviews, starred review «â??There are things so masterful words canâ??t do them justice. Frazierâ??s writing falls in that categoryâ?¦With Thirteen Moons, heâ??s doing important work fillnig in the gaps, helping restore the roots, of our knowledge of our own history.â?â??Asheville Citizen-Times â??Fascinatingâ?¦Reading Thirteen Moons is an intoxicating experienceâ?¦This is 21st-century literary fiction at its very best.â?â??BookPage â??Thirteen Moons is rare in many ways and occupies a literary plane of such height that reviewing it is not really salientâ?¦.Thirteen Moons has the power to inspire great performances from succeeding generations of writersâ?¦.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 enrichedâ?¦.Thirteen Moons belongs to the ages.â?â??Los Angeles Times â??Once again, we are in the hands of an assured writer who knows how to bring history to lifeâ?¦Gorgeous.â?â??New Orleans Times Picayune â??Magicalâ?¦the history lesson in Thirteen Moons is fascinating and movingâ?¦You will find much to admire and savor in Thirteen Moons.â?â??USA Todayâ??Incredibly powerful.â?â??Melissa Block on NPR All Things Consideredâ??Verdict: A powerhouse second actâ?¦.a brilliant successâ?¦Frazier's second act should convince everyone that he's here to stay. It is a powerful, dramatic, often surprising and memorable novel.â?â??Atlanta Journal Constitutionâ??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 eulogiesâ?â??Boston Globeâ??Warm heartedâ?¦Frazier is a remarkably meticulous and tasteful writerâ?¦ Thirteen Moons is a worthy successor to the first novel and a highly readable book.â?â??Seattle Timesâ??Fiction of the highest orderâ?¦Another indelible character. Charles Frazier has a knack for them.â?â??Charlotte Observerâ??Splendidly written.â?â??New York Daily Newsâ??What a story!... Frazier's creation, Will Cooper, is utterly charismaticâ?¦.Frazier's genius lies in his ability to convey emotions that feel pure and genuineâ?¦It was worth the wait.â?â??Dayton Daily Newsâ??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 transcendentâ?¦.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 Frazierâ??s work, to take in each thought, to relish the turn of phrase or the imagery of a craftsman.â?â??Denver Postâ??Two for twoâ?¦Here is a book brimming with vivid, adventurous incidentâ?¦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.â?â??Raleigh News & Observerâ??If current fiction is anything to go by, itâ??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 itâ?¦Thirteen Moons makes you feel that change that happened so long before our own time, and makes you mourn it.â?â??Newsdayâ??[Thirteen Moons] is superbly entertaining, and it packs enough emotional heft to measure up to most readersâ?? high expectations.â?â??Richmond Times-Dispatch â??Thirteen Moons is a fitting successor to Cold Mountainâ?¦fans of Frazier's debut will be cheered to discover that the new book is another compulsively readable work of historical fiction.â?â??St. Louis Post-Dispatch â??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.â?â??Minneapolis Star Tribuneâ??Achingly beautiful descriptions of natureâ?¦Itâ??s rich, itâ??s beautiful.â?â??Columbia Stateâ??Forget the sophomore jinx. Frazier demonstrates that Cold Mountain was no one-hit wonder with this fully realized historical novel again set in the Southâ?¦.Again, Frazier shows himself a master of landscape and language, both often fresh and surprising in his telling.â??Seattle Post-Intelligencerâ??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.â?â??Smoky Mountain Newsâ??Once again, we are in the hands of an assured writer who knows how to bring history to lifeâ?¦Gorgeous.â?â??New Orleans Times Picayune â??Magicalâ?¦the history lesson in Thirteen Moons is fascinating and movingâ?¦You will find much to admire and savor in Thirteen Moons.â?â??USA Todayâ??Verdict: A powerhouse second actâ?¦.a brilliant successâ?¦Frazier's second act should convince everyone that he's here to stay. It is a powerful, dramatic, often surprising and memorable novel.â?â??Atlanta Journal Constitutionâ??Thirteen Moons is a boisterous, confident novel that draws from the epic tradition... Frazier is a natural ...Read More read less...
