Nightwoods: Book summary and reviews of Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Nightwoods 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 twentieth century, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art.

Nightwoods Reviews

"More portrait, less epic." - Library Journal

"A Southern gothic narrative that's strong on characters and backwoods atmosphere but undermined by literary affectation [but] when he tempers his tendency toward filigree and lets his bare-boned, hard-boiled plot progress, the novel packs a devastating punch." - Kirkus Reviews

"The characters are rich and unforgettable, and the prose almost lyrical. This is Charles Frazier at his best." - Booklist

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Nightwoods Reader Reviews

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Rated of 5 by Suzanne G
Another Frazier good one—
Nightwoods is so earthy and visually available. This will always be one of my favorites. Not only was the book hard to put down but I was saddened when the story ended. It would have been comforting to read more of Charles Frazier’s words and phrases. I simply loved this book.

Charles Frazier Author Biography

Charles Frazier was born in 1950 in Asheville, North Carolina and grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973,  received an M.A. from Appalachian State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1986. 

Cold Mountain, his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller, and won the National Book Award in 1997.  It traces the journey of Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army - the story is based in part on Frazier's great-great-uncle , W. P. Inman.   A movie adaptation was released in 2003.

His second novel, Thirteen Moons, was published in 2006, with an $8 million advance from his USA...

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