Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997)

There are two interwoven stories: that of Inman and that of Ada. They meet and fall in love just before Inman goes to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Ada, on her own after her father's death, waiting and yearning for Inman's return, meets Ruby whose practical skills help them both to grow food and endure the demands of wartime. They farm Ada's plot of land together. Meanwhile, Inman a wounded soldier in hospital, deserts to find his way back to Ada. He battles the horrors of walking through wilderness alone, needing to find food. Threatened by most of the people he comes across he finally comes up against Teague and his team. Officially sanctioned to capture deserters, they are really just a bunch of thugs given rein to get away with murder. Ada's story of overcoming hardship is inspiring while Inman's tale of outwitting enemies and stealing food is a grim one deserving its due reward. Does he find Ada?

Frazier uses archaic words to take us back to the times in the terrain as it was then, and to the food, use of herbs, and of building materials, and the rough conditions of the time, itself a time of war. He says he was conscious of similarities with Ulysses and Penelope in Homer's The Odyssey. He was a teacher of English Literature you will not be surprised to hear.
Nine and a half out of ten. Well worth reading, even if you have seen the film ' Cold Mountain' - also the name of real mountain in North Carolina. (Click on the title above for more information about the book)
There is no photo as the book is no longer with me!




Fatherland by Robert Harris, 1992, is at first the story of an investigation into racketeers who stole art treasures and sent them abroad. The policeman, March, is a sympathetic hero in his search for justice in a Berlin bureaucracy generally unsympathetic to his enquiries. Even more so when he finds evidence of the most unspeakably horrific crimes. Details of the holocaust are found in documents discovered by March. There are attempts to conceal his findings. Kennedy, the American president, is due to visit Germany shortly. This president is Joseph Kennedy, father of the Jack Kennedy who really was an American president.




Set in 1964, with the background of Berlin and a Germany at continuous war in the East, the Duke of Windsor is the King of the United Kingdom in this fiction. March goes on an atmospheric visit to Zurich to gain information from an ultra-secretive bank in an episode which recalled short visits of my own to Zurich, albeit on other business. 9 out of 10.
These books were first novels for both writers.

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