return to home  
Join   |  Gift   |  Member Login   |  Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile
Follow Us: 
   Summary and Book Reviews

Cold Mountain: Summary and book reviews of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, plus links to an excerpt from Cold Mountain and a biography of Charles Frazier.

Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
Hardcover: Jun 1997,
356 pages.
Paperback: Aug 1998,
449 pages.

Publication information
First book/First Novel


Author Information
Critics' Opinion:   
Readers' Rating:  
About BookBrowse Rankings
Share: 
Buy This Book

BOOK SUMMARY

A magnificent love story, Cold Mountain is the tale of a wounded Confederate soldier, Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war and back home to his pre-war sweetheart, Ada. Inman's odyssey through the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South interweaves with Ada's struggle to revive her father's farm with the help of an intrepid young drifter named Ruby. As their long-separated lives begin to converge at the close of the war, Inman and Ada confront the vastly transformed world in which they now live.

Media Reviews

  San Francisco Chronicle
Charles Frazier's first novel is a rare and extraordinary book, a Civil War novel concerned less with battlefields than with the landscape of the human soul.

  Publisher's Weekly
Rich in evocative physical detail and timeless human insight.

Author Blurb John Berendt
Cold Mountain is a heartbreakingly beautiful story, elegantly told and utterly convincing down to the last haunting detail.

Author Blurb Willie Morris
Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is the most impressive and enthralling first novel I have read in a long time. It is a magnetic story, ambitious in scope, with richly developed characters and beautiful evocations of landscape. Though set in an earlier time, it is contemporary in the profoundest sense, with resonance of A Farewell to Arms.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by mandi
awsome
This book is great! I am reading it for English class and it is the first book so far that I really like! The plot it great kinda confusing but if you keep reading it all falls into place. The book is great I can't wait to see the movie!

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Brooke
Cold Mountain
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This book was just incredible! It is so detailed and has a great storyline!

Rated 1 of 5 of 5 by annoula
Cold Mountain
it didn't amaze me. to me it was boring, it describes so much to a point that it makes me wanna fall asleep. bottom line: didn't like it.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Puget Sound Reader
Pause, Reflect and Exhale
I did not want this book to end. It has been deeply satisfying, with moments of awe. The author has an ability to paint you into the scene, and the experience, with ease. Never forced, never a wasted word. Every image is instantly clear in my minds...   Read More

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by John
Wounderful piece of American literature.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by iris
I loved reading "Cold Mountain". the writer has captured the pure essence of mountain living in the civil war era. Some of his vocabulary stirred my imagination. One must haved lived in the "Cold Mountain" area and had a...   Read More

...32 More Reader Reviews

Readalikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Cold Mountain, try these:


All Other Nights
by Dara Horn

In this eagerly-awaited third novel, award-winning author Dara Horn brings us page-turning storytelling at its best. Layered with meaning, All Other Nights presents the most American of subjects with originality and insight -- and the possibility of reconciliation that might yet await us.

Birdsong
by Sebastian Faulks

Crafted from the ruins of war and the indestructibility of love, Birdsong is a novel that will be read and marveled at for years to come.


These are 2 of the 14 readalike suggestions for Cold Mountain. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.


Become a Member
Click Here
Editor's Choice
  •  May 23 
  •  May 21 
  •  May 20 
And the Mountains Echoed
Khaled Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed Jacket

Khaled Hosseini has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations
Helga's Diary
Helga Weiss

Helga's Diary Jacket

The remarkable diary of a young girl who survived the Holocaust—appearing in English for the first time.
Fever
Mary Beth Keane

Fever Jacket

A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Click Here
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Movies Based on Books: Summer 2013 (May - August)
Jewish Young Adult Books That Are Not About The Holocaust
Books to Give This Mother's Day
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
Recent Reader Reviews
Two Lives by Vikram Seth
Two Lives is a memoir written by international best-selling author, Vikram Seth. In this interesting and engaging book, Seth writes about his great... read more
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight... read more
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Wonder
R.J. Palacio
2. A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer
3. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
4. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
5. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
Paperback (Mar/13)
Eleanor & Park
by Rainbow Rowell
Hardback (Feb/13)
The House Girl
by Tara Conklin
Paperback (Oct/13)
The Painted Girls
by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Hardback (Jan/13)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
The Caretaker
by A .X. Ahmad
Four Stars            (May/13)
The Sisterhood
by Helen Bryan
Four Stars            (Apr/13)
The Last Girl
by Jane Casey
Four Stars            (May/13)
Golden Boy
by Abigail Tarttelin
4.5 Stars            (May/13)
More...
  Latest BookBrowse News
Judge rules unused Borders gift cards to be worthless (May 23 2013)
Borders owes nothing to holders of roughly $210.5 million of gift cards that had not been used by the time the bookstore chain shut down, a Manhattan federal... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
 
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Which of these Summer movies based on books would you like to see? (Info on each movie here)
The Great Gatsby
Epic
Man of Steel
World War Z
The Lone Ranger
The Wolverine
R.I.P.D.
Percy Jackson
Paranoia
The Mortal Instruments
Select Any That Apply
Search: Title or Author
Free Newsletters
The Light Between Oceans

Online Book Club
More about
Five Days
Join the discussion!


Win This Book!
On Sal Mal Lane


"Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound."

Enter To Win Now!

wordplay
Solve this clue:
"I Y N P O T Solution, Y P O T P"

and be entered
to win....
frame top
New Author
Interviews
Menna van Praag
Erica Brown
Helga Weiss
Kate Morton
frame bottom
HOME Book Submissions | Advertising | Library Subscriptions | Reviewing for BookBrowse | Contact Us