Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Thirteen Moons: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Thirteen Moons: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Thirteen Moons: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    Thirteen Moons: A Novel

    Written by Charles Frazier

    Narrated by Will Patton

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    This magnificent novel by one of America's finest writers is the epic of one man's remarkable journey, set in nineteenth-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life.

    At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home. In a card game with a white Indian named Featherstone, Will wins - for a brief moment - a mysterious girl named Claire, and his passion and desire for her spans this novel. As Will's destiny intertwines with the fate of the Cherokee Indians - including a Cherokee Chief named Bear - he learns how to fight and survive in the face of both nature and men, and eventually, under the Corn Tassel Moon, Will begins the fight against Washington City to preserve the Cherokee's homeland and culture. And he will come to know the truth behind his belief that "only desire trumps time."

    Brilliantly imagined, written with great power and beauty by a master of American fiction, Thirteen Moons is a stunning novel about a man's passion for a woman, and how loss, longing and love can shape a man's destiny over the many moons of a life.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 3, 2006
    ISBN9780739301975
    Unavailable
    Thirteen Moons: A Novel
    Author

    Charles Frazier

    Charles Frazier is the author of Cold Mountain, an international bestseller that won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy-Award winning film by Anthony Minghella. He is also the author of the bestselling novels Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods.

    More audiobooks from Charles Frazier

    Related to Thirteen Moons

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      America’s Caste System

      Oct 10, 2020

      Termed an “instant American classic” by The New York Times, Isabel Wilkerson’s thorny book is not the first to use “caste” to probe America’s racial ills. A European word popularised in India by the Portuguese, “caste” has often featured in explanati

      3 min read

    • Article

      Bravehearted Women

      Aug 29, 2023

      Bravehearted Women
      7 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Jul 23, 2019

      Reviews
      8 min read

    • Article

      Lone Star Stories: The 10 Best Books About Texas

      Nov 13, 2020

      a great book about Texas should not only contain historical fact, it should give readers an impression of the Lone Star state—its scents, sights, and sensations—as well as what it feels like to be a human being of fragile flesh and blood in that imme

      3 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Print the Legend

      Sep 25, 2018

      Don’t Print the Legend
      11 min read

    • Article

      White Author, Black Paragons

      Jun 10, 2022

      White Author, Black Paragons
      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Novels By Black Writers Pulse With Powerful Storytelling

      Feb 1, 2024

      Great books can change lives; they have changed mine. My favorite authors include writers of every hue, but what baffles me is that the work of Black writers seems to get highlighted only during Black History Month. Great prose is for every reader, a

      5 min read

    • Article

      'Three Not-So-Ordinary Joes' Wonderfully Explores The Links Of Literary Influence

      Jul 23, 2018

      How witty British literati Addison and Steele left their mark on America's Southern literature, via Uncle Remus.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Call Them Trash

      Aug 4, 2022

      Don’t Call Them Trash
      11 min read

    • Article

      Lit Hub Daily: May 16, 2019

      May 16, 2019

      Lit Hub Daily: May 16, 2019
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Patriot Slave

      Jun 1, 2020

      The Patriot Slave
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Kansas Literary Renaissance: A List

      Jan 23, 2018

      Kansas is experiencing a literary renaissance. The post The Kansas Literary Renaissance: A List appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Everything Worthwhile Is Very Far Away: An Excerpt from the New Introduction to ‘Poor White’

      Jun 28, 2018

      1. In 1919, after his first marriage had ended, his family had dissolved, and his career as a mail-order businessman had been tossed aside for artistic dreams, 42-year-old Sherwood Anderson published Winesburg, Ohio, his fourth book of an eventual 27

      9 min read

    • Article

      Freedom Tales

      Sep 1, 2022

      In 1825, Lydia Maria Francis was only 23 years old, but she had already written two novels that had made her a literary celebrity. She was fiercely proud of her country’s new history and bright promise, and her protagonists exhibited all the virtues

      11 min read

    • Article

      Badman Cherokee Bill

      May 11, 2021

      Badman Cherokee Bill
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Horse Whisperer

      Jul 17, 2022

      Horse is a remarkable novel. It spans three timelines, from the mid-1800s to the almost present day, tangling threads of the story and fusing fact with fiction. Writing it must have been terrifically complex, but reading it isn’t complex at all. The

      2 min read

    • Article

      Whiting Foundation Names Creative Nonfiction Grantees

      Nov 10, 2021

      The nine recipients of the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, now in its sixth year, will receive $40,000 to support a nonfiction project. The post Whiting Foundation Names Creative Nonfiction Grantees appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West

      Dec 27, 2019

      This list of must-read crime titles forms part of a lesser-known West, an awesomely weird landscape in which the line between Good and Evil shimmers like a mirage. The post Ten Must-Read Crime Books Set in the American West appeared first on The Mill

      4 min read

    • Article

      All True

      Aug 15, 2023

      All True
      3 min read

    Reviews for Thirteen Moons

    3.5/5

    583 ratings46 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Lovely languid storytelling with a fantastic through-line about unconnecting love. Read the book through and then reread chapter 1 again.

      I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could - it felt long by a quarter, but was well worth the time.
    • 4/5
      Some reviewers have found the full text version long and tedious. Can't speak to that, but I can say I enjoyed this abridged version, with wonderful narration by Will Patton.

      The setting is one I know little about (Appalachia and the Cherokee Nation in the 19th Century) so to me the story was fresh and surprising. As others have pointed out, the story of the White Man befriended by the Indians is a standard of American Lit, going all the way back to Fenimoore Cooper -- (and insightfully elucidated in Leslie Fiedler's classic critique, Love and Death in the American Novel). What I found most interesting here was the presentation of the Native Americans as intermingling with the Europeans--in blood, culture and behavior. I've an idea that this is pretty close to what actually happened with the Cherokee.

      In summary then, you can think of Thirteen Moons as a kind of post-modern Last of the Mohicans: a realistic historical adventure imbued with irony and melancholy.
    • 4/5
      Set in the early 1800's, Will Cooper is an orphan boy who is sent west by himself to run a trading post in the Indian country. Here he discovers a forsaken building with a few items but more importantly meets Bear, an old Cherokee who takes him under wing. Will eventually becomes a part of the Cherokee tribe whose lands include the western parts of Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, etc. As the Europeans are expanding, trade at the trading post becomes more lucrative, but also the Indian lands are being coveted by the whites.This novel covers almost a century of time ending during the time when the railroads have spread across this land. Will and Bear maintain a unique relationship which includes Will working all kinds of legal maneuvers to keep Bear's clan from being removed to Oklahoma. The story isn't so much about the actual Trail of Tears but more about the peoples who were able to avoid the removal (The Indian Removal Act), the people that removed them, and the land that changed drastically from open land to private ownership by the settlers.Will has many adventures several of which include love affairs, the most special being to Claire, the daughter of Featherstone, a Cherokee with as much white blood as Indian. There are several historical characters interspersed through the book. One of the most interesting points is the idea of who is really Indian and who is Scot, Irish, or some variation in between. Many of the wealthy Cherokee even held slaves.The plot and setting were interesting. Sometimes the character of Will is a bit of a stretch. Although the author does a beautiful job at description, sometimes it is just too much detail. Must every yellow leaf and blue sky be painted.
    • 3/5
      An interesting novel set in the nineteenth-century mountains of North Carolina and told from the point-of-view of Will Cooper, a figure of semi-legend who rose to prominence by protecting a Cherokee village during the Indian removal under Jackson and then subsequently owned vast land holdings in the mountains, practiced law, participated in state government, and held a military command under the Confederacy during the Civil War. Interesting, but I struggled with bits of this novel, trying to slug through some chapters while speeding through others. A good read for those interested in the period and the area.
    • 3/5
      I listened to this book and found the narrator to be pleasant to listen to. The story is a rambling sort of story poetic at times so if that is not your cup of tea you probably won't enjoy it. I only gave it 3 stars because while it was entertaining and I had no problem wanting to get back to listening each time I had opportunity to listen, There just wasn't anything to cause me to say wow and I don't feel I will have any memory of this book in 6 months. Not a waste of time in any way, I just did not love it to give it 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      'Everyone deserves a second chance' is a good aphorism to live by. Several years ago I tried to read Cold Mountain but found it too artsy and self-conscious and wasn't able to get past the first 50 pp. As a result, Charles Frazier slid off my reader screen. That is, until I acquired the CD book Thirteen Moons beautifully read by Will Patton whose voice characterized the tragic star-crossed Will Cooper from bound boy in the 1830s to very old man in the new century.The plot concerns the struggles of Will and the Cherokee Indians who adopt him to find a way, place, home, and love as they combat villainous gamblers and the legal machinations of the Federal Government to move them from their traditional homeland secreted in the Smoky Mountains of the Carolinas to resettlement in the Oklahoma Territories in what is known to history as the Trail of Tears emigration.Frazier respects his callow hero and the Indians who accept him and foster his survival in the wilderness. Their native respect for Nature and Will's growing appreciation for the Nation are well portrayed. In fact, the small fault in this novel is the frequent and too rhapsodic descriptions of the environment and the weather, which becomes a character in itself. Admittedly, this may be intentional considering the books title is the Indian calculation of a year -- thirteen phases of the moon.Frazier combines effective action, tender yearning, and intellectually satisfying exploration of a boy growing into manhood, suffering triumphs and losses, great rewards and bitter betrayals. Will Cooper symbolizes the young United States as its history and his fortunes are traced from the early 19th C. wild and unformed frontier to the railroad-tamed and industrialized early 20th C. developed power, all of which occurs during his lifetime. Frazier's novel is a grand saga written in depth and with abundant love that will be enjoyed by readers who like to wallow in a rich reading experience that is enhanced by thoughtful contemplation and fully realized characterizations. In short, it's an ideal winter read that invites introspection while enjoying an armchair all-American adventure.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book on CD and really enjoyed it. It holds many historic details -- small things about both "Americans" and Native Americans that are fascinating in both good and bad ways. Good story. I learned some things about Cherokee customs I didn't know and a bunch about how things were in the early days of the US. The listener/reader will feel part of the "scene" and time.
    • 2/5
      When you're already a misandrist and misanthropist, it's hard to read this book. The story takes place in a time when few HUmans lived in North America, and the description of the land is achingly beautiful.
    • 4/5
      An intriguing and entertaining tale with insightful passages about the demise of the American Indians and life in general, particularly love, loss, and aging.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written. Fantastic characters. So sorry I'm finished with it.
    • 5/5
      This is a beautifully written historical novel. It tells the tale of a boy, sold into apprenticeship, who becomes part of the Cherokee nation, rubs elbows with famous people in Washington, DC, and sacrifices his own happiness for that of his people. Like all of Frazier's books, you can see every detail of the setting as he describes it. The events cover decades, but the writing maintains your interest. The wide cast of characters come to life with his writing.
    • 3/5
      While there is a balance of both weak white and strong Cherokee perspectives, the overall plot lacks cohesion. Too much goes missing, though the time spent in Bear's Winterhouse was intriguing.The only character I cared about was Waverly, Will's horse.Memorable quote: "The price of postage was all that stood in the way of becoming a poet."
    • 4/5
      Summary: As a twelve-year-old, Will Cooper is sold by his guardians to a man who needs him to run a trading post in the heart of the Cherokee Nation. With little more than the clothes on his back, his horse, and a rough map, he survives the journey there and settles into his duties. Bear, the chief of the local tribe, takes Will under his wing, and eventually adopts him into the tribe. Bear is trying to keep his world and his people together in the midst of a world that seems intent on changing things. Will is shaped by his connection to Bear, and becomes an ally in the fight to keep the land that is connected to them both. But Will is also bound by his love of Claire, the mysterious girl that he first met on the road, who is in the charge of the unpredictably violent Featherstone.Review: I absolutely loved Cold Mountain, and on reading the description, I should have loved this book as well. I like Frazier's writing style, and there were lots of elements to this that sounded interesting: civil war, Cherokee culture, the interactions between the Cherokee Nation and white settlers at the time, the Trail of Tears, etc. But unfortunately, this book lost steam about halfway through, and it wound up being kind of a slog to finish.The book is told from Will's point of view as an old man, as part autobiography and part reminiscence. The first part of the book, that tells of Will's growing up, his adoption by Bear, and the first stages of his relationship with Claire, was great. Frazier's writing is very atmospheric; the southern Appalachian mountains are a character in their own right (maybe even the main character), and I absolutely felt like I was back there. Similarly, Will going about the business of growing up was not particularly dramatic in terms of historical scope, but it was relatable, and interesting in its details, and the details of daily life. However, once Will got to his late 20s or early 30s - about halfway through the book - the scope of the novel got a lot more "sweeping historical events" and a lot less personal, and Will seems to recount his Forrest-Gump-ing through history from a much more distant and less emotional vantage point. So that was where this novel stopped being enjoyable (if not a fast read; Frazier's prose is lovely but a little dense at the best of times) and started being a challenge to push through, where it went from personal and relatable to broader but flatter. Overall, I see the themes that Frazier was going for, the idea of change and progress and trying to hold on to what you know and love in a changing world. I also appreciate that this book got me to consider a time period and some issues that I'd never really thought about before (i.e. the Cherokee Nation didn't exist in a vacuum; there were Cherokee who owned plantations with slaves). But paradoxically, and unfortunately, the more the historical events picked up, the more steam the story itself started to lose. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Not as good as Cold Mountain, but may be worth a try if you're interested in pre-Civil War Native American culture, or really love spending time in Charles Frazier's mountainous landscape.
    • 4/5
      I do not remember ever being more emotionally moved on a personal level from any other book, And I've read many! This is purely fiction; none of the main characters existed; they are figments of imagination placed within historical situations. For me, the story is generally interesting - tells a tale of a group of Cherokee's who were able to thwart relocation (The Trail of Tears) with the help of an old Cherokee who understood legal aspects of land ownership - so he outright bought and held deeds on a thousand acres of land; along with his "adopted" son, who becomes a lawyer, travels to Washington City and for years keeps this group of Cherokee's on their land through legal wrangling. There is a lot of travel in this saga. The travels of the main character, Will, on horseback, carriage... rail road.... and the descriptions are wonderful! I know a bit of the southern states in which this is all taking place, and even though it is no longer open pasture and forest as it was over 100 years ago, the bones of what is described are still there. The lives of the Cherokee are much discussed. As is the intermixing of the people - Cherokee and "white"; most often, it seems, the Scot's who settled in the South and often lived harmonious lived with the native inhabitants. Racial issues are discussed and are as unclear in this book as they were/are in life - then and now.The emotional part was realizing at the end, there was a life long and seemingly fully lived, but never personally fulfilled. Other's I know who have read this did not see or feel what I did. But I stand by my verdict. Whether Mr Frazier intended to, or not, I see ultimately a story of a life unfulfilled.
    • 4/5
      Unlike many of the other reviewers, I haven't read Cold Mountain; this is my first encounter with Charles Frazier. There is a lot about this book that I liked. The writing is great -- almost poetic at times, ironical at others -- the writing conveyed the mood of the scenes so well. I felt very moved by the stories about the Removal. The author created a sharp sense of time and place. The story was interesting, telling the life story of Will Cooper, an orphan bound to a merchant who is adopted by an Indian tribe. Will becomes a lawyer and a politician, as well as a leader in the Indian tribe. He has one great love -- Claire -- and that story is captivating. My only criticism is that I found it hard to really identify with Will, and though the book was a big long as a result.
    • 4/5
       Not exactly a gripping book, but it has a charm to it. presented as the reminiscences of an old man, it tells the tale of Will Cooper, who starts life as a boy bound in service to a trader and sent, with just a map and a horse, to the Indian reservation. Set at the time fot he Indian clearances, it tells of his interactions with the local tribes, his love for an indian girl and his generally adventurous life. Loses drive in his middle years, but that, in a way, echoes the gradual loss of enthusiasm and willingness to take risks of his youth and early manhood that ocurs with age. The book club had mixed opinions on this, but I have to say that I quite liked it. Not sure it would leap to the top of a list of reccomendations, but it was good and worth picking up.
    • 2/5
      This one was a let-down. I found it rambled too much, and boring in places. I guess after Cold Mountain, I had very high expectations.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful prose, sometimes I had to pull myself out of the story to marvel at the turns of phrase. The strongest voice I have read besides Mattie Ross in True Grit.
    • 5/5
      Excellernt,a wonderful portrait of a nation in the making,and the sad tale of the Native Americans' sacrifice to progress(!?) and greed
    • 5/5
      This book reminded me a great deal of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, in regard to an aging narrator recounting his life in the most beautiful prose imaginable. Thirteen Moons is an absolutely phenomenal story, told by one of the most interesting and believable narrators that I have had the privilege of sharing a text with in a long while. I listened to the book on tape, and I found myself almost mesmerized by the story of Will Cooper, and his foibles and triumphs. I have always loved Indian stories, but this one seemed so real, and no account of Indian peoples I have ever read has seemed so realistic. I love the way that the narrator is so transparent about his life, and I also love his (Charles Frazier's really) command of the language. Some of the lines made me want to weep. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading an epic tale of love, loss, and the displacement of a nation.
    • 4/5
      I have read "Cold Mountain" a couple of times and was anxious to read another book by Frazier. This story of Will Cooper and his adventures in finding his own way in the world is set in the mountains of North Carolina, pre-Civil War. This book is full of details about this region of the country, Native American culture and life at that time and life at a trading post.
    • 4/5
      To me this book seemed like a grown-up version of Huck Finn. The story is told right from the first person and the setting is a bit far back (the narrator is born about 3 or 4 decades pre-civil war). It's a love story, it's a story of a yearning for power, for the preservation of tradition and all-in-all, a highly recommended read.
    • 4/5
      Thirteen Moons is Charles Frazier's sophomore novel, the first being the highly acclaimed Cold Mountain (which I never read, or saw the movie). After reading a recent few disappointing sophomore novels, I was a bit nervous to start in on this one.I had no reason to be nervous. I loved it. Frazier's writing style is just beautiful: evocative, simple without oversimplifying, and concise. Nothing felt unnecessary or uneven.This is the story of Will Cooper, who was sent (at the age of twelve) to the edge of the Cherokee nation to run a trading post. He starts out with just his horse and a key to the store, and builds a life from there. The people in his life are beautifully drawn: Bear, his Cherokee surrogate father; Claire, who he wins in a card game when they are both 12 years old; Featherstone, owner of a nearby plantation. Will's story is told from his late-in-life perspective, with the pragmatic feeling of a man who lived through history and doesn't sugarcoat it or romanticize anything. The stark tale against the lush background of the mountains and the characterization - dang, it was just about perfect.I hope that he writes more novels along these lines. I'll probably pick up Cold Mountain at some point and read that, as well.
    • 2/5
      This book was okay, but I remember being really disappointed at the end.
    • 4/5
      This audiobook kept me fine company during my last week or so of commuting to school. The narrator is a man I'd never heard of before--and I can't imagine him doing well with anything that wasn't Western, but he did well with this. Actually, the character he played was from the South--Tennessee--but the reader has more of a Western drawl, I think. No matter. The drawl worked well, as did the age in the voice. Reminded me a lot of my friend Colt.The story is set long ago, and it just has this... feel to it that I can't explain... an atmosphere. America has just barely begun to form. Native Americans still live on their lands, though by this time most of them have adapted to the influx of white people. The Trail of Tears hasn't yet happened.The protagonist is a white orphan who is sent into Cherokee territory for some reason or another, and he is soon taken in by a man named Bear. Will begins to learn the Cherokee language--which is a good deal more complex than English, actually, something I didn't know. The language has many more tenses.Will grows up throughout the story, and there is your typical lost love plot. Sometimes he seems a wee bit high and mighty, but overall it is an excellent story. Very sad, very long...and it has a deep feel to it... it feels like the South, like Tennessee. Yes. I'm realizing it now... that deep, slightly sad but proud vibe that runs in the Tennessee hills is captured in this story.
    • 4/5
      Frazier's Thirteen Moons is, ultimately, the story of a man in all his human frailty. Will Cooper narrates his exploits retrospectively, as an old man, which lends wit and candor to his story, as well as a very particular insight into what it is to be human. This, coupled with Frazier's lovely descriptive imagery (I could drink his words) and a quality of haunting poignance renders Thirteen Moons a brilliant read.
    • 4/5
      I felt that Cold Mountain was an outstanding work of fiction. I was somewhat surprised in that I don't normally care for award winning literary works. Cold Mountain, however, was so beautifully written and captivating that I would rate it as one of my favorite books. For that reason, I was looking forward to seeing what Charles Frazier would do for an encore. It is easy to be disappointed when a successor doesn't measure up to the original, but in this case, how could it? Viewed on its own, Thirteen Moons is a very good work and displays much of the same outstanding writing found in Cold Mountain. The setting was quite original as well and in my opinion enhanced the work. The premise involves a very elderly narrator looking back upon his time among the Cherokee Indians of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains in the early 19th century. As a young man, he was sold as an indentured servant to a businessman who placed him in charge of a frontier trading post. It was here that he fell in with and was essentially adopted by the adjacent Native Americans. Thirteen Moons is his recollection of his time among the natives and his efforts to acquire and hold onto the ancestral property of his adopted tribe, efforts which involved training as a lawyer and acting as a lobbyist among D.C. lawmakers and policy setters in the time leading up to and encompassing the Trail of Tears. As in Cold Mountain, Frazier's writing is haunting and filled with imagery of the surrounding countryside. It can certainly be said that at times the action drags, but I can never say that I became bored or anxious for something to happen. I was at all times captivated by the prose and the underlying story line. The thread involving the love of his life, Claire, was simply outstanding as it wove its way in and out of the novel. The love/hate relationship with Featherstone was magnificently presented as were the father/son moments between Will and Bear. All in all, a very worthy successor to Cold Mountain. I eagerly await Frazier's next effort.
    • 4/5
      Liked it more than Cold Mountain
    • 4/5
      Covers the life of Will Cooper who was apprenticed out by his aunt and uncle to run a trading post in Indian territory. He was eventually adopted by the chief of the local tribe, Bear and lived his life as an Indian and spokesman for the Cherokee. He assisted his tribe by helping them understand American laws and government and politics and was able to keep them on their land while other tribes were removed to Oklahoma.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this lonely tale of a boy who becomes a man through various trials and tribulations, all the while remaining cool, calm and collected. A very melancholy story. Excellent!