Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. COLD MOUNTAIN, his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller, selling over one million copies and winning the National Book Award in 1997. It was the inspiration for the Oscar-winning film directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellweger.A second novel, THIRTEEN MOONS, was published by Sceptre in 2007 and NIGHTWOODS, Charles' latest novel set in a lakeside town in 1960s North Carolina, was published in 2011.
Riveting...this is a sharp, evocative novel * Publishers Weekly * Elegant, elegiac prose * Sunday Express S Magazine * Frazier's writing is, as ever, spectacular in place. * Scotland on Sunday * The narrative is sweeping and Frazier has a beautiful style of writing. * Press Association * A visceral, powerfully written evocation both of the beaten South at the nadir and of one of its more unusual survivors. * Daily Mail * Here's a woman of the Civil War to outshine Scarlett O'Hara * Times * Frazier's elegant prose and vivid, dreamy conjuring of V's youth and her attempted exodus has an air of romance about it ... Fascinating. * New Statesman * Moving * Sunday Times * '[A] fine historical novel ... A strong human story and, in the capable hands of Frazier, the author of Cold Mountain, is both emotionally engaging and rich in historical insights. * Mail on Sunday * Clear-sighted depiction of culpable leaders in a divided America. * Guardian * Superb...Frazier's historical research generally sits lightly on the story, almost always embedded gracefully in dialogue, a small telling incident or a sharp memory of kindness or brutality. His prose is both of the characters' time and perfectly evocative... A finely wrought novel that will reward re-reading. Elegiac without being exculpatory, it is an indictment of complicity without ignoring the historic complexity of the great evil at the core of American history. * Washington Post * Frazier is a writer whose spare prose paradoxically oozes atmosphere - you can almost smell the verdant pine trees and hear the crack of the twigs underfoot . . . Beneath the chilling, photogenic story, the writing remains beautiful. * Independent * Frazier works on an epic scale, but his genius is in the details - he has a scholar's command of the physical realities of early America and a novelist's gift for bringing them to life * Time * Riveting...this is a sharp evocative novel * Publishers Weekly * A splendid historical novel just right for our time * Newsday * Frazier is a superb prose stylist who elevates the historical fiction genre...his writing can be breathtaking * USA Today *