“Alarming, really, how all the wheels of the world—the days and nights, the thirteen moons, the four seasons, and the great singular round of the year itself—begin spinning faster and faster the closer we get to the Nightland. We’re called to it and it pulls us. And the weaker we become, the harder and faster it pulls.”
Will Cooper is sent into the wilderness to run a trading post at the age of 12. As an orphan, his aunt and uncle needed the money and hired him out on a seven-year contract. Taking only a horse, map, key and some food, he enters Indian territory on a journey that shapes the rest of his life. The friends he meets turns into family and he finds love and a career. However, his life is not a smooth road, but is full of twists and regrets in Thirteen Moons.
I am reading through my to-read pile this year (or at least making a huge dent in it). Thirteen Moons was on my shelf and I saw it was available to check out as an ebook, so I checked it out as my next read. While Charles Frazier is known for his novel, Cold Mountain, this is the first book of his that I have read. (I’ve watched the movie Cold Mountain.)
Told from the view of Will as an older man looking back on his life, Thirteen Moons reads like a fascinating memoir of someone who lived through the world when the Indians were being forced from their lands. He meets presidents and Davey Crockett, becomes a lawyer and buys tons of land. However, the book mainly travels along Will’s biggest regrets in life – losing the love of his life, betraying a friend and not attending to his affairs.
Thirteen Moons was a captivating tale and I checked halfway through to make sure it was a fiction book because it reads like it might be true. It’s like a glimpse back in time to a different time and world. Readers who enjoy great fiction stories would enjoy reading Thirteen Moons.
Have you read any Charles Frazier books? Share your thoughts in the comments.