Thirteen Moons: A Novel

Charles Fraziers Thirteen Moons is the story of one mans remarkable life, spanning a century of relentless change. At the age of twelve, an orphan named Will Cooper is given a horse, a key, and a map and is sent on a journey through the wilderness to the edge of the Cherokee Nation, the uncharted white space on the map. Will is a bound boy, obliged to run a remote Indian trading post. As he fulfills his lonesome duty, Will finds a father in Bear, a Cherokee chief, and is adopted by him and his people, developing relationships that ultimately forge Wills character. All the while, his love of Claire, the enigmatic and captivating charge of volatile and powerful Featherstone, will forever rule Wills heart.
In a distinct voice filled with both humor and yearning, Will tells of a lifelong search for home, the hunger for fortune and adventure, the rebuilding of a trampled culture, and above all an enduring pursuit of passion. As he comes to realize, When all else is lost and gone forever, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time.

Will Cooper, in the hands of Charles Frazier, becomes a classic American soul: a man devoted to a place and its people, a woman, and a way of life, all of which are forever just beyond his reach. Thirteen Moons takes us from the uncharted wilderness of an unspoiled continent, across the South, up and down the Mississippi, and to the urban clamor of a raw Washington City. Throughout, Will is swept along as the wild beauty of the nineteenth century gives way to the telephones, automobiles, and encroaching railways of the twentieth. Steeped in history, rich in insight, and filled with moments of sudden beauty, Thirteen Moons is an unforgettable work of fiction by an American master.


PRAISE FOR THIRTEEN MOONS

Genius.
Time

GorgeousThirteen Moons calls Cold Mountain to mind in its wonder at the natural world; its pacificist undercurrents; its dismay at the dismantling of what matters, and its convication that one love, no matter how tortured and inexplicable, can be life-definingfascinatingvivid and alive.
Newsweek


Thirteen Moons is rare in many ways and occupies a literary plane of such height that reviewing it is not really salient.Thirteen Moons has the power to inspire great performances from succeeding generations of writers.For those who simply value the literary experience, Thirteen Moons will provide the immense satisfaction of taking a literary journey of magnitude. Whether on a plane, in an office or curled in a window seat, readers who absorb Will's story will find their own lives enriched.Thirteen Moons belongs to the ages.
Los Angeles Times

Thirteen Moons brings this vanished world thrillingly to life
One of the great Native American, and American stories, and a great gift to all of us, from one of our very best writers.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

There are things so masterful words cant do them justice. Fraziers writing falls in that categoryWith Thirteen Moons, hes doing important work fillnig in the gaps, helping restore the roots, of our knowledge of our own history.
Asheville Citizen-Times

FascinatingReading Thirteen Moons is an intoxicating experienceThis is 21st-century literary fiction at its very best.
BookPage

Thirteen Moons is rare in many ways and occupies a literary plane of such height that reviewing it is not really salient.Thirteen Moons has the power to inspire great performances from succeeding generations of writers.For those who simply value the literary experience, Thirteen Moons will provide the immense satisfaction of taking a literary journey of magnitude. Whether on a plane, in an office or curled in a window seat, readers who absorb Will's story will find their own lives enriched.Thirteen Moons belongs to the ages.
Los Angeles Times

Once again, we are in the hands of an assured writer who knows how to bring history to lifeGorgeous.
New Orleans Times Picayune

Magicalthe history lesson in Thirteen Moons is fascinating and movingYou will find much to admire and savor in Thirteen Moons.
USA Today

Incredibly powerful.
Melissa Block on NPR All Things Considered

Verdict: A powerhouse second act.a brilliant successFrazier's second act should convince everyone that he's here to stay. It is a powerful, dramatic, often surprising and memorable novel.
Atlanta Journal Constitution

Thirteen Moons is a boisterous, confident novel that draws from the epic tradition... Frazier is a natural storyteller, and throughout his picaresque tale are grand themes and eulogies
Boston Globe

Warm heartedFrazier is a remarkably meticulous and tasteful writer Thirteen Moons is a worthy successor to the first novel
and a highly readable book.
Seattle Times

Fiction of the highest orderAnother indelible character. Charles Frazier has a knack for them.
Charlotte Observer

Splendidly written.
New York Daily News

What a story!... Frazier's creation, Will Cooper, is utterly charismatic.Frazier's genius lies in his ability to convey emotions that feel pure and genuineIt was worth the wait.
Dayton Daily News

To Charles Frazier, words are playthings. Like very few other contemporary American novelists, he puts them together in such a way that they can transform an otherwise mundane moment, scene or conversation into one that is transcendent.No sophomore jinx here. Reading a Frazier novel is like listening to a fine symphony. He's a maestro whose pen is his baton, beckoning the best that each sentence has to offer. And just as you wouldn't rush a conductor, you should take the time to savor Fraziers work, to take in each thought, to relish the turn of phrase or the imagery of a craftsman.
Denver Post

Two for twoHere is a book brimming with vivid, adventurous incidentCharles Frazier set himself a daunting challenge with this book. He set out to write a historical novel that was retrospective and meditative, yet still vibrant and immediate with life. Thirteen Moons succeeds in classy fashion.
Raleigh News & Observer

If current fiction is anything to go by, its hard for a novelist to make Santayana's puzzle pieces - lyricism, comedy, tragedy - fit together, as they do in real life and real history. Frazier has done itThirteen Moons makes you feel that change that happened so long before our own time, and makes you mourn it.
Newsday

[Thirteen Moons] is superbly entertaining, and it packs enough emotional heft to measure up to most readers high expectations.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Thirteen Moons is a fitting successor to Cold Mountainfans of Frazier's debut will be cheered to discover that the new book is another compulsively readable work of historical fiction.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If there is any doubt that Frazier is an incredibly gifted storyteller - and not just a lucky name or a one-hit wonder - it will be put to rest with the publication of Thirteen Moons. Within 10 pages, this long-awaited new novel bears the reader swiftly out of the waking world into its own imagined universe like nothing else published this year.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Achingly beautiful descriptions of natureIts rich, its beautiful.
Columbia State

Forget the sophomore jinx. Frazier demonstrates that Cold Mountain was no one-hit wonder with this fully realized historical novel again set in the South.Again, Frazier shows himself a master of landscape and language, both often fresh and surprising in his telling.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Thirteen Moons contains achingly beautiful passages of snowfalls, fog-wrapped rivers and moonlit forests. There are ribald and hilarious events, too, including a description of the Cherokee Booger Dance that is a masterpiece of satire. The love affair between Cooper and Claire threads its way through this pseudo-historic epic like a brilliant, scarlet ribbon. There is also a melancholy refrain that celebrates a wondrous time and place that is gone and will never return.
Smoky Mountain News



Once again, we are in the hands of an assured writer who knows how to bring history to lifeGorgeous.
New Orleans Times Picayune

Magicalthe history lesson in Thirteen Moons is fascinating and movingYou will find much to admire and savor in Thirteen Moons.
USA Today

Verdict: A powerhouse second act.a brilliant successFrazier's second act should convince everyone that he's here to stay. It is a powerful, dramatic, often surprising and memorable novel.
Atlanta Journal Constitution

Thirteen Moons is a boisterous, confident novel that draws from the epic tradition... Frazier is a natural storyteller, and throughout his picaresque tale are grand themes and eulogies
Boston Globe

Fiction of the highest orderAnother indelible character. Charles Frazier has a knack for them.
Charlotte Observer

What a story!... Frazier's creation, Will Cooper, is utterly charismatic.Frazier's genius lies in his ability to convey emotions that feel pure and genuineIt was worth the wait.
Dayton Daily News

To Charles Frazier, words are playthings. Like very few other contemporary American novelists, he puts them together in such a way that they can transform an otherwise mundane moment, scene or conversation into one that is transcendent.No sophomore jinx here. Reading a Frazier novel is like listening to a fine symphony. He's a maestro whose pen is his baton, beckoning the best that each sentence has to offer. And just as you wouldn't rush a conductor, you should take the time to savor Fraziers work, to take in each thought, to relish the turn of phrase or the imagery of a craftsman.
Denver Post

Two for twoHere is a book brimming with vivid, adventurous incidentCharles Frazier set himself a daunting challenge with this book. He set out to write a historical novel that was retrospective and meditative, yet still vibrant and immediate with life. Thirteen Moons succeeds in classy fashion.
Raleigh News & Observer

[Thirteen Moons] is superbly entertaining, and it packs enough emotional heft to measure up to most readers high expectations.
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Thirteen Moons is a fitting successor to Cold Mountainfans of Frazier's debut will be cheered to discover that the new book is another compulsively readable work of historical fiction.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If there is any doubt that Frazier is an incredibly gifted storyteller - and not just a lucky name or a one-hit wonder - it will be put to rest with the publication of Thirteen Moons. Within 10 pages, this long-awaited new novel bears the reader swiftly out of the waking world into its own imagined universe like nothing else published this year.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Forget the sophomore jinx. Frazier demonstrates that Cold Mountain was no one-hit wonder with this fully realized historical novel again set in the South.Again, Frazier shows himself a master of landscape and language, both often fresh and surprising in his telling.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer