The book of this month is 'Cold Mountain', a 1997 historical fiction by Charles Frazier. It was Charles Frazier's first novel and a major bestseller, selling roughly three million copies worldwide. The novel won the 1997 National Book Award. It also won the W.D. Weatherford Award that year.



It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life. The narrative alternates back and forth every chapter between the story of Inman and that of Ada Monroe, a minister's daughter recently relocated from Charleston to a farm in the rural mountain community called Cold Mountain from which Inman hails. Though they only knew each other for a brief time before Inman departed for the war, it is largely the hope of seeing Ada again that drives Inman to desert the army and make the dangerous journey back to Cold Mountain.

At Cold Mountain, Ada's father soon dies, and the farm that the genteel city-bred Ada lives on, named Black Cove, is soon reduced to a state of disrepair. A young woman named Ruby, homeless but a stronger worker than Ada and resourceful, soon moves in and, through hard labor, helps Ada clean the place up and return it to productivity as well as change as a person from being a learned girl, knowing nothing that could help her live, to a woman who can fend for herself.

Inman's journey is rough. It was his love to Ada that kept him alive to find his way home. He faces hunger, an attempted armed robbery at a rural tavern, and occasionally is given shelter by civilians who want nothing to do with the war. Through cunning ingenuity he helps one of them track and recover a hog, her only possession and source of food for the winter, which had just been seized from her by Union soldiers. He is also helped by a woman who owns goats, who gives him advice and medicines to finally heal his wounds.

In the end, he manages to find his way back to Black Cove which was empty and so he sets out to find Ada on the mountain and he unexpectedly encounters Ada in britches and shooting wild turkeys. However, both have changed so greatly in their appearance and demeanor since they parted that it is some moments before they recognize one another. They were really happy. As the party begins the trek back to the farm, they encounter the Home Guard. A shootout commences in which Inman kills or chases off all the members of the Guard except for a seventeen year old boy who flees into the thicket and is cornered against a rock ledge. Inman, reluctant to shoot him down in cold blood, tries to convince him to lay down his arms and leave, but is shot and fatally wounded by the boy when he approaches. He soon dies.

Ada eventually gives birth to three children and raise them at Black Cove, where she lives with Stobrod and the now married Ruby and Georgia boy and their children. She remembers Inman deep in her heart.

The reason that I like this book is...
I saw this wonderful debut novel by Charles Frazier on my grandparents' bedside table. They usually read books before going to bed. I guess I inherited their habits because I do that almost every time before I go to bed. When I have briefly finished the synopsis at the back of the cover, I decided to have a read. Within minutes, I was totally drawn into the interaction of the characters and at the same time my jaw was dropped open because the prose style was so wonderful. The story of the three characters (Ada, Ruby and Inman) is woven so skillfully that I found it almost impossible to put the book down. I also love American history because their histories were so interesting. It also gives its readers a fresh new way to look at the Civil War. Many of the scenes made me flinch, but it also deepened my understanding of this very important period in history. This is the best novel I have read in years.

Adapted into film...
This novel was also adapted into an award-winning film of the same name. It was directed by the late Anthony Minghella, and stars Jude Law as Inman, Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe and Renée Zellweger as Ruby. The film received a nomination for Best Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes. Despite not being nominated for the Best Picture award, the film did pick up seven Oscar nominations, and one win for Renée Zellweger as Best Supporting Actress.


Ada Monroe and Inman portrayed by Nicole Kidman and Jude Law in the film' Cold Mountain'.


Ruby portrayed by Renée Zellweger.