Nightwoods

A Novel

By: Charles Frazier

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

The extraordinary author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons returns with a dazzling new novel of suspense and love set in small-town North Carolina in the early 1960s.

Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister’s troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine.

Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape, choosing to live apart from the small community around her. But the coming of the children changes everything, cracking open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, dangerous ways.

Charles Frazier is known for his historical literary odysseys, and for making figures in the past come vividly to life. Set in the 20th century, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art.

©2011 Charles Frazier (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR CHARLES FRAZIER: “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 on Cold Mountain)

“Prose filled with grace notes and trenchant asides ... 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 on Cold Mountain)

“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 on Thirteen Moon)

Excellent in every way.

Excellent story. Charles Frazier captures sights, smells sounds and feelings like few others. The sense of place is outstanding. The story is very engaging but unhurried. Will Patton is excellent as always!

One of the year's best

A lovely story, beautifully told. I'd be hard pressed to say whether I liked this story better than Frazier's others, but it certainly is right up there. Incredible use of language, fully realized by Will Patton's narration.

Perfect

The voice of the writer and the voice of the reader were well married. Going to start over again. Some of those passages are among the most beautiful and lyrical prose or poetry that I have come across.

Another Treasure from Charles Frazier

Frazier’s writing and Patton’s narration are a powerful team in this taut, almost magical drama set in Appalachia.

When a reclusive woman inherits the mute children of her murdered sister, poisonous characters almost ooze from the forests around the tumbledown former resort where she is caretaker. The author offers a profusion of small, compelling scenes, like an afternoon snack of the deep-fried spinal cord of a hog, accompanied by frosty glasses of buttermilk. There is exquisitely crafted misdirection, and surprising connections. They are slow to develop, but that doesn’t indicate a plodding narrative. It’s quite the opposite, again due to superb writing and a narrator who wraps his voice around every nuance.

The narration was excellent…

…but the story would grab my attention & then let go. I kept having to go back to re-listen to see if I missed something (I didn’t). I never developed any real interest in the characters & caring about at least someone in a book is kind of necessary for me. I only listened through to the end at regular speed because of Will Patton’s narration.

Seriously, Will Patton...

Great story, made that much better by Will Patton's narration. Glad I listened instead of read.

Intriguing

This story pulls you in right from the beginning. Charles Frazier builds his characters with depth and much introspection into life and shows us how resilient we are in the the face of circumstances we have no control over and turns the story into a mystery story.

Another awesome narration by Will Patton...a must listen to book.

Excellent

Charles Frazier’s storytelling is impeccable. His use of the English language, especially in the Southern Appalachian Mountains is a reminder of how our current society has lost so much of its beauty.

Great Read!

I always enjoy a tale by Charles Frazier and this one did not disappoint. The descriptive language as he weaves the story is what I like most.

Nightwoods

A quiet, unassuming story beautifully told in typical Frazier style. Details are so clear one can almost feel the moss crunch underfoot. I found the characters to be real and true for the time period and location.

The setting is the quiet Appalachian landscape in the 1950s. The author offers his readers a most captivating, often poignant portrayal of Luce, the young woman who unexpectedly inherits her sister's troublesome, emotionally scarred twins. Hers is a battle of wits with her sister's husband whom she suspects is her sister’s killer - as she seeks to protect the children from him. Her only friends are the unassuming Stubblefield who becomes protector to her and the children and Mattie the mountain woman of indeterminate age.