Nightwoods: A Novel

Charles Frazier

Sept 2011 · Sold by Random House

About this eBook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
Charles Frazier, the acclaimed author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons, returns with a dazzling novel set in small-town North Carolina in the early 1960s. 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. In a lean, tight narrative, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art.
 
“Impossible to shake.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Fantastic.”—The Washington Post
 
“Astute and compassionate.”—The Boston Globe

Ratings and reviews

In a well told tale about life in the Appalachian countryside in the 1960s, the author paints a picture of the struggles for life. Luce lives by herself in the old Lodge. Since the owner died, she has taken it upon herself to act as caretaker in what had been a summer retreat by a man made lake. When he sister is murdered, Luce gets custody of her sister's twins. She didn't feel that she had any choice since it was that or the children would have been placed into adoption. This is an example of the Naturalistic literary style where the character's environment or heridety predetermine what will happen to the characters with little chance that the characters can do anything to change that outcome. Bud is the children's father. He's a cold blooded killer and reminded me of the wonderful character Anton Chigurth from "No Country for Old Men." When Bud's path and that of Luce and the children begin to converge, suspense mounts and the book becomes thrilling. Charles Frazier is a wonderful story teller and has given us a book with rich characters where the reader develops a great deal of empathy. This is a book that the reader can get lost in and it reaffirms Frazier's place as one of the best literary writers working today.

It was an OK book, the plot was solid but it was hard to follow along in certain spots. I felt like it was going fast then suddenly putting on the brakes, again and again. It is worth sticking through til the end though.

Great read. Insight into the mountains of North Carolina.

About the author

Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. Cold Mountain, his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller and won the National Book Award in 1997. His second novel, Thirteen Moons, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.