I was browsing in a local Maine bookstore and there it was, Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier. Charles Frazier was the author of Cold Mountain, and as most of you know that was an absolute favorite of mine. It goes to prove how busy I am in my everyday life, that I did not actually read Cold Mountain, but saw the movie. Thus it goes that I did not realize that Cold Mountain was published 10 years ago, and that Thirteen Moons was just published in Oct. 06.
One of the wonderful features of vacation is that you get to do things that you normally don't have time for. Well, that is, if you allow yourself to relax. So I bought that book, Thirteen Moons, and spent many a morning on vacation, languishing in bed, absorbed in the novel. Truly, the book is wonderful and I highly recommend it.
Wickipedia Says...........
Charles Frazier (born November 4, 1950) is an award-winning American historical novelist.
Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1986.
Career
His first novel, Cold Mountain (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997. ISBN 0-87113-679-1), traces the journey of Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War. The work is rich in the culture and sensibilities of the North Carolina mountains and was based on local history and stories handed down by Frazier's father about Frazier's great-great-uncle W. P. Inman.[1]. Inman, who was from Cold Mountain, served in the Confederate Army from which he deserted after being wounded and is reputedly buried in a local cemetery.[2] The real Inman served as a private in Company F of the 25th North Carolina Infantry, and his regiment did participate in the fighting in the Siege of Petersburg, including the Battle of the Crater.[citation needed]
The novel won the 1997 National Book Award and was adapted as a film of the same title by Anthony Minghella in 2003.
Frazier's second novel Thirteen Moons was published in October 2006 by Random House, and traces the story of one man across a century of change in America. Based on the success of Cold Mountain, Frazier was offered an $8 million advance for Thirteen Moons.[3]
Synopsis of the book...............................
''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.' Brillianty imagined 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.''
