Click here for a photo of Charles Frazier.

Cold Mountain Author Charles Frazier Presents His Long-Awaited Second Novel
On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch
Friday, November 17, at 9:30 PM & Sunday, September 19, at 5 PM

Like North Carolinian Charles Frazier’s memorable first novel, Cold Mountain—a romantic epic detailing a Civil War deserter’s homeward odyssey—Frazier’s long-awaited second novel Thirteen Moons introduces readers to another embattled hero on an unforgettable journey. 

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch, premiering Friday, November 17, at 9:30 PM, author Charles Frazier shares his latest story in which a rootless and restless protagonist expends the energies of a lifetime seeking a permanent reunion with the only woman he’ll ever love.

“I had read about a real man at Dorothea Dix Hospital in the late 19th century who would sometimes only speak Cherokee; and I just filed that idea away, wondering who this fellow was and what his story was,” says Frazier. “When I was looking for another book idea I kept coming back to that. It wasn’t so much the mental institution part that got me, but rather when I found out that this guy was sent out to run a trading post as a twelve year-old boy. This twelve year-old boy, on a horse, in the wilderness, with a map and a direction to go—that is what really started me out on this book.”

Charles Frazier’s Thirteen Moons is the fictional story of this man’s 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 Will’s character. All the while, his love of Claire, the enigmatic and captivating charge of volatile and powerful Featherstone, will forever rule Will’s heart.

“In this book, Will tells us anyway, that he sort of won [Claire] in a card game…and that he fell irrevocably in love with her from that day forward,” says, Frazier. “He never really understands Claire, or how she makes her decisions, but he is constantly pursuing her all through his life; and at 90-something-years-old, in an a age of telephones and automobiles, he is still waiting for the phone to ring—hoping that it will be Claire on the other end of the line.”

In a distinct voice filled with both humor and yearning, Will also 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 in the wake of frontier violence.

“The Frontier at the time this book starts ran right down the Blue Ridge and it was a rough violent time; and Will is largely a man of peace…he always advises being calm and finding resolution other than violence but he sometimes doesn’t follow his own advice,” admits Frazier.  “When I was growing up, you’d hear older men telling stories of their youth—conflicts and fighting which were largely things of the past; but [the men] still had a twinkle in their eye when they told those stories. Violence is a difficult thing to write about…I certainly don’t want to glorify it; but on the other hand, I wanted to try to make readers feel both the horror and the excitement of it for the participants.”

 Will Cooper, a participant protagonist in the hands of author Charles Frazier, becomes a classic American soul as a result of his pursuits: 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. Throughout Thirteen Moons, 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, this new book is an unforgettable work of fiction by an American master more concerned with a sense of place than the direction of plot.

“I like books that, when you sink into the book, you sink into a world that is fully developed and clearly detailed…plot is something I think of later,” says Frazier. “I’m interested, especially as a writer, in language, place and character…and plot for me just has to grow out of that.”

Charles Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina. Cold Mountain, his first novel, was an international bestseller and won the National Book Award in 1997, as well as the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s all-new, exclusive interview with Charles Frazier on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 17, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, November 19, at 5 PM, only on UNC-TV!

During this season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests also include: Will Blythe (To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever), John Hart (The King of Lies), Sarah Dessen (Just Listen), Kristin Henderson (While They’re at War), David Payne (Back to Wando Passo), John Hope Franklin (Mirror to America), Leah Stewart (The Myth of You and Me), Andrew Britton (The American), Allan Gurganus (New Stories of the South), Bill Smith (Seasoned in the South), William Leuchtenburg (The White House Looks South), Dot Jackson (Refuge), Art Chansky (Blue Blood), Mark Ethridge (Grievances),  Paul Leonard (Music of a Thousand Hammers), Angela Davis-Gardner (Plum Wine), Pat Taylor (Fourth Down and Goal to Go) and Lee Smith (On Agate Hill). 

For more information about additional series guests & airdates and the Bookwatch Blog, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh’s independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV’s ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV’s other local productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

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