Cold Mountain

By: Charles Frazier

Narrated by: Charles Frazier

Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic American Odyssey--hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

©1997 Charles Frazier (P)1998 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Charles Frazier delivers a soulful reading of his novel....His writing reveals the fluidity of a storyteller, and the audiobook becomes a natural extension of his skill." (AudioFile)
"Charles Frazier has taken on a daunting task, and has done extraordinarily well by it....A Whitmanesque foray into America; into its hugeness, its freshness, its scope and its soul. Such a memorable book." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A rare and extraordinary book....Heart-stopping....Spellbinding." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Novelists are never in short supply. Natural-born storytellers come along only rarely. Charles Frazier joins the ranks of that elite cadre on the first page of his astonishing debut." (Newsweek)

I loved this book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

A powerful story filled with unforgettable characters read beautifully by
the author.

What does Charles Frazier bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr. Frazier's soft southern accent and his amazing imagery took me to
the south in that sad civil war period, evoking the beauty and courage as well as the poverty, despair and cruelty of that period.

I think my eyes would have flown over so many chapters, but his quiet,
beautiful voice made me stop, listen and look at each person, each place. I don't usually like books read by authors who read the words woodenly. Mr. Frazier is a wonderful exception.

Poignant story, beautiful imagry

I want to listen again in a few weeks, to better appreciate the depth of each character. What a talented author to paint such deep felt images of the surrounding countryside, character's feelings, and wickedness of war. I'm so lucky to have read this account of another time before my time is over.

One of my Ten most loved novels

Language and vocabulary like syrup, plot and character development beyond sublime, historical accuracy so real as to be painful to read....just settle in and be amazed.

depressing

I'm sure this book won all sorts of literary awards but for me it was just very depressing. the author wrote it as a very very depressing story. definitely not light listening. Even when telling the few positive things that happen they were all described using negative,depressing terms. I had trouble finishing it. I only did so to try to figure out why it won awards.

Inman

Inman and Ruby were great character. Loved the book! Follows the movie version very closely!

Tremendous

One of the most enjoyable stories I’ve listened to. I couldn’t recommend any more highly.

Just Beautifully Written

Such an amazing, exciting, and very realistic journey for both main characters. Beautiful, folksy, stoic, and haunting. It is always a major plus when the author narrates their own book too.

Great book!

I loved this book, could not stop listening. there was just something in the waiting and then having the author read it.

great audiobook

Very good reading and it’s actually the full version which i needed and it’s great in 2x speed. Love this book!

Thank you

I both appreciated the author’s reading and the fact that the story ended realistically. My only wish is that a more female sounding voice could have become Ada and Ruby (threw me off a bit). Even so a beautiful listen.