Cold Mountain: 20th Anniversary Edition

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

An instant, international bestseller, Charles Frazier's debut novel of love and peril at the end of the Civil War was a publishing sensation, the inspiration for an Oscar-nominated blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, and the subject of an acclaimed opera. Over 20 years later, it stands as an essential, modern classic.

Charles Frazier's debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history in 1997 when it stood at the top of the New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now reissued for its twentieth year, this extraordinary tale of a soldier's perilous journey back to his beloved at the end of the Civil War is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished land. Adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, and a 2015 opera co-commissioned between Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia and the Minnesota Opera, Cold Mountain portrays an era that continues to speak eloquently to our time.

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Published Jun 13, 2017

464 pages

Average rating: 7.31

75 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

BookListLinda
Feb 14, 2026
6/10 stars
https://cerebralspice.wordpress.com/2024/11/13/book-list-cold-mountain-by-charles-frazier

Long to read, dark and brutal in many ways. Allow yourself to be in a good space with plenty of brain power to read this. For mature readers only, I believe.
abookwanderer
Oct 09, 2025
6/10 stars
The book was beautifully written, but I just had a hard time getting into it. I repeatedly found myself rereading passages. However, it was a haunting love story that will stick with me for a while.
Ani13
Feb 27, 2025
6/10 stars
I thought the book was good, I liked the message, and I understand why it is the way it is, but so much happened and at the same time nothing happened. Most of the book feels like filler, it was suchhhh a slow read. It just wasn’t the type of book I would get excited to go read.

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