Cold Mountain

Unabridged
Author: Charles Frazier
Narrator: Charles Frazier
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: December 2003
Length: 15 hours
Ratings:
Formats:
  • CD
  • iPod
Abridged
Author: Charles Frazier
Narrator: Dylan Baker
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: December 2003
Length: 3 hours
Ratings:
  • Book Rating: 3.5/5
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

Winner of the 1997 National Book Award

A New York Times and Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year

Charles Frazier has created a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished land, a place where savagery coexists with splendour and human beings contend with the inhuman solitude of the wilderness. 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, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learning 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 odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

Reviews (25)

It was o.k., but not great

Written by PVS on October 6th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 3/5

This book was o.k., but not riveting. There was a lot of detail which could either be interesting at times, or annoying when I was trying to figure out what the author was getting at. It wasn't until several discs in that the reader finds out the two main characters have strong feelings for one another. But then there is not a lot of the author does to build up how the romance began. The way the author tells the story of the beginning romance makes it seem lame. I found myself thinking, this guy is going through all of this because of these first few encounters? It's almost like he had a fantasy about who she was. Like I said, it was o.k. but the romance part should have been more developed.

Wondeful book

Written by Yvonne from Lynchburg, VA on August 27th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I am on the last of 12 disks and I am already dreading having to be finished with this book. At first the dull voice of the narrator was rather annoying to me, but later I realized that his voice is actually perfect for this sad, gloomy and beautiful story. It is obvious that the author did a great deal of research for this book. I would definitely recommend this book.

Cold Mountain

Written by MackTenn on August 15th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 5/5

One of the most powerful and spellbinding books I've heard since becoming a member, up there with "Life of Pi," "Bel Canto" and few others. If you're interested in American history, or a powerful narrative story, I highly recommend it. The author reads it, and it would have been better served with a more dramatically capable reader. But it's a minor nuisance, the words carry the story.

Cold Mountain

Written by Peggy Stortz on February 4th, 2008

  • Book Rating: 4/5

Perhaps I should have listened to the unabridged version of this novel. With the abridged edition people and places flew at the listener in rapid succession and I didn't feel very much connection with any of them.

A bit overdone, in all the right ways

Written by David Anthony from West Chester, PA on December 18th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 4/5

The skeptic in me couldn't help but question the depth of Inman's character and his musings on the world around him, but this took nothing away from a sweeping, romantic, and thoroughly fascinating story. Even though I saw the movie first, the book was full of suspense and shed much more light on the characters I had already met. Very well read by the author, whose voice is a perfect match for the text.

Cold Mountain

Written by Anonymous on October 26th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 2/5

This has to be one of the most monotone reading I have heard. It was very hard to listen to. I made it thu it but it was hard. The other reviews said it was great & I don't agree. It was pretty boring to me. Nothing much happened which is true I guess but didn't make it easier to listen to. It is like he is just reading the book to you so it is some differnt then most of the other books you listen to.

Cold Mountain

Written by Carol K on October 22nd, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I loved listening to this book. The prose was beautiful and the stories within the story were all moving.

Cold Mountain

Written by Sherry Johnson from Sarasota, FL on October 4th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

What a FANTASTIC book. I was sorry for it to end. It's almost like you become a part of it, and never WANT it to end.

Cold Mountain

Written by Jennifer Atwell on August 12th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I absolutely loved this audiobook. The author reads it which I think is always better. If you can, listen to this before you see the movie (the movie is also very good)!!

Cold Mountain

Written by Connie Rutter from Roswell, GA on June 19th, 2007

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I found this book to be a very interesting tale. At first I had trouble with the narrator, but I did get used to his style and then felt like we were sitting on a porch and he was telling me a very good story. It seemed a little depressing for me, but I think it was truely a sign of what happened during those times. This was my second Civil War mystery in the past month and I found both to be very interesting and would probably read more by this author.

Author Details

Author Details

Frazier, Charles

"Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He now live in Raleigh with his wife and daughter, where they raise horses. Cold Mountain is his first novel."