This 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.
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"historical fiction with a similar feel to his first book, Cold Mountain. While he can ramble, the feel is very down-homey. It is a little long, but the characters are well formed and compelling. I especially liked the historical part as it relates to the Trail of Tears and the Cherokee Nation."
— Brian (4 out of 5 stars)
" I liked this far better than Cold Mountain. I cared about Will and although I despaired of the non-linear narrative at times, I loved the writing "
— Gael, 2/12/2014" This was an excellent story and I loved the narration. Another audio book that I would enjoy reading also. "
— Hally, 2/6/2014" Better than Cold Mountain. It is on my re-read list. "
— Linda, 2/4/2014" Frazier is a magnificent storyteller, as Cold Mountain proved (though somehow I never managed to read it before--or after--the movie came out). Here he tells the stories and story of a 14-year-old orphan who's sent out to the frontier on the edge of the Cherokee Nation to manage a trading post. He's adopted by the chief of a small band of Cherokee separate from the Nation. As he buys up land and trading posts and becomes a lawyer, he succeeds in saving this band from being forced off their land and sent west along the Trail of Tears. There are lots of good stories & the larger story is one that I would have expected to have a lot of appeal for me, but somehow it never consolidated its appeal as much as it seems like it should have. "
— Marvin, 2/2/2014" Great telling of the settlement of the Smokies by whites and uprooting of the indigenous Cherokees. One criticism is the neglect of African American characters in the tale, and the narrator's role as a slave owner. "
— Patricia, 1/24/2014" Wonderful story takes place in the Smokey Mountains, told in first person with beautiful language.I savored this one. "
— Ann-marie, 1/18/2014" As his first novel is probably my number one, I was disappointed by this in which the main love interest is never developed and so any force the novel could have developed was lost right there. And the style which seemed appropriate and fresh in his first seemed ineffectual in this one. "
— Will2, 1/17/2014" Such a gentle book. Loved the relationships and setting. Perfect for night reading. "
— Robyn, 1/13/2014" So far this book is amazing. The prose style is lyrical and descriptive, very evocative of place...but more as a metaphor than any specific geographic area. "
— Mike, 1/12/2014" Couldn't get into this book. "
— Carol, 1/8/2014Charles Frazier is the author of several books, including Cold Mountain, which won the National Book Award in 1997 and was made into an Academy-Award winning film. His second novel, Thirteen Moons, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder and at North Carolina State University.
Will Patton is an award-winning actor and narrator. HIs narrations have earned the prestigious Audie Award for Best Fiction Narration and also won dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards. His numerous film credits include Remember the Titans, The Punisher, The Mothman Prophesies, Armageddon, and The Spitfire Grill. He starred in the TNT miniseries Into the West and on the CBS series The Agency and won Obie Awards in the theater for his performances in Fool for Love and What Did He See.