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)

Great Travel Book

I read this while traveling through North Carolina and it was very neat to follow his trip home from the Civil War It gives an interesting contrasting perspective of the Civil War from those left behind and those running away. #tagsgiving #sweepstakes #northcarolina #civilwar #appalacians

Wonderful reading, wonderful story

What made the experience of listening to Cold Mountain the most enjoyable?

Many reviews complained of the narration of this story, but I felt the author's reading was perfect and beyond appropriate. He was every character, in the most sincere and honest way. There was nothing acted or showy about the performance, it was exactly what it needed to be.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved all characters, right down to the ones you should have hated. The story is so beautifully written while still maintaining honesty and being wholly grounded. Every character was someone you may encounter in life, and all were necessary.

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

Honesty and connectedness. I couldn't imagine anyone else reading this wonderful book to me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was a book I wanted to listen to in one sitting, although I spaced it out. I never wanted to stop listening, but I also didn't want it to end. Quite the conundrum. I plan on making this story an annual/ bi-annual read, however.

Any additional comments?

This book is wonderful. The author's reading is wonderful. Buy this book, it will not disappoint.

Excellent narration

A beautiful story of love, war, friendship and hard living directed by the seasons of nature and kife.

My go to book for fall

I listen to this book every fall, to match the seasons of the story. I think it’s been nine times now I just love this book and the authors voice is beautiful when he reads the story.

The language

This is a very melancholy book but to me shows exactly how to get thru difficult times. The characters and their interactions were pure gold. The descriptions of life on the farm so powerful they could have been memories. ❤️

Cold Mountain - Content over style.

Previous readers seem to have either loved or hated this book, and the reading by the author is a major factor in these opinions. I loved the story and how Charles Frazier spun the characters and the plot, I could "see" the mountains and the farm, the characters were very real with true voices.
Did I like Frazier's reading? Eventually yes. I had to get over the lack of variety in the characters' voices that would tell me who is speaking. I had to get used to his habit of reading as if there were no periods between sentences, even when the speaker changed. But his voice is a pleasant one to listen to, and his words were remarkable. Ultimately the strength of what he wrote triumphed over how he read it.

Horrible narration

I was so distracted by the lackluster narration and swallowing/clicking noises he made that I found it hard to become fully lost in the story. Wish I wouldn’t have wasted my time or money.

Briliant

What did you love best about Cold Mountain?

Beautifully written

What did you like best about this story?

Good characterization

Have you listened to any of Charles Frazier’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not sure if I have heard him before,nut his reading was excellent.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Neither. It was a beautiful listening experience.

Any additional comments?

Highly recommend this audio book. I far preferred the ending to the one I recall in the film. My memory may have slipped and I just don't recall the film as well as I might.

A truly beautiful story

The book was amazingly written, and kept me interested, however the author as narrator was pretty terrible. Very monotone, no voices or inflection variances. He went from one section of story to the next so you couldn’t tell which character it was at first. And gross mouth noises. He should’ve hired a professional narrator.
But the story won me over for sure. It was poetry.

Cold Mountain

Thought the author did a very good job narrating this Book.

The Book to me is better than the Movie, in the Book the characters are much tougher and the main character is really tough,dont mess with him.

A lot more characters and is much expanded when comparing it to the Movie, which was very good in itself.