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    Nightwoods: A Novel
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    Nightwoods: A Novel
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    Nightwoods: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    Nightwoods: A Novel

    Written by Charles Frazier

    Narrated by Will Patton

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The extraordinary author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons returns with a dazzling new novel of suspense and love set in small-town North Carolina in the early 1960s.

    Charles Frazier puts his remarkable gifts in the service of a lean, taut narrative while losing none of the transcendent prose, virtuosic storytelling, and insight into human nature that have made him one of the most beloved and celebrated authors in the world. Now, with his brilliant portrait of Luce, a young woman who inherits her murdered sister's troubled twins, Frazier has created his most memorable heroine.

    Before the children, Luce was content with the reimbursements of the rich Appalachian landscape, choosing to live apart from the small community around her. But the coming of the children changes everything, cracking open her solitary life in difficult, hopeful, dangerous ways.

    Charles Frazier is known for his historical literary odysseys, and for making figures in the past come vividly to life. Set in the twentieth century, Nightwoods resonates with the timelessness of a great work of art.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 27, 2011
    ISBN9780307966513
    Unavailable
    Nightwoods: 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.

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    Reviews for Nightwoods

    4/5

    410 ratings64 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A great book of mystery and horror. I loved this book's unique way of observing legends, aductions, and fear.
    • 5/5
      If you like scary half-warewolf half-human cannibal people then read this book! its about a group of girls(maryann, casey, and gena) who ditch their senior school trip to washington dc, and go to casey's parents cabin. One thing gena and maryann dont know is that "coincidentally" they will meet up with three boys. Theyre seemingly fun trip turns into a nightmare when the "animal person" starts kidnapping and tourturing each friend. one by one. Surviving a week in the woods is going to be way harder then the girls could ever imagine.
    • 3/5
      Luce lives alone as a caretaker in an old lodge in the NC mountains in the early 60s. She has custody of her murdered sister's 2 children, twins who have obviously been seriously affected by being abused by their stepfather and by seeing their mother's murder. Luce is a loner, coming from an unpromising background also, but she does her best to teach the mute children what she knows about the mountains and the natural world around them. The new owner through inheritance shows up, as does the stepfather who escaped murder charges. What I did enjoy about the book were the descriptions of the mountains and what Luce had to show the children. I felt as if I were there; I could almost smell the forest. What I didn't like was the confusing way it was written. I found it hard to follow at times because so much was implied instead of stated. This book is fairly short. I think it may have been better as a longer book.
    • 4/5
      Not quite sure why I've never picked up Frazier before now. Excellent prose. He makes me want to live in his descriptions of the mountains of NC. The weaving of narratives was quite brilliant, as well.
    • 4/5
      Luce lives in the lodge belonging to her late employer. She's actually "squatting" now, but lacking another place to go, she remains. She loves solitude. After her sister's murder, she takes in her delinquent niece and nephew. Although the situation does not meet state standards, the social worker in charge overlooks it. Frazier's well-drawn characters draw readers into the story even if that story does not resonate. The author invokes the Appalachian region's natural beauty, making full use of it to create an atmosphere appropriate to the action.
    • 4/5
      Frazier's novel of the intersection of several lives in mid-twentieth century Appalachia is gorgeously written on the sentence level. Every few pages or so I had to stop and reread a sentence to fully take in the lyricism or the just-so way he put something. The descriptions of place and of nature are also exquisitely well done. This is not a nice story, though, and we spend a good deal of time in the heads of and in the company of characters (one in particular) whose deep unpleasantness wore on me, and not in ways I found intriguing or compelling. I also felt held at a distance from some of the other characters--especially the twin children around whom much of the plot entwines--in a way that read a touch literary and unrealistic. This was, I think, very much a your-mileage-may-vary kind of read. There was so much here to like and admire, and readers a little less sensitive to awful characters may respond more favorably toward the whole novel than I did.
    • 5/5
      It is the 1950s, in rural North Carolina. A young woman, named Luce lives a quiet life in an old lodge, she inherited. This solitude changes, when she also inherits her murdered sister's two children. They are troubled kids, somewhat “creepy” kids and to make things even more challenging for Luce, their estranged father is trying to track them down, with evil intent.This one caught me by surprise. I had not read Frazier since Cold Mountain, was all the rage, and did not expect him to still be this damn good. Lean, atmospheric and suspenseful. A thrilling combination. Fans of Wiley Cash, will love it, as we wait for another book from him. It was also fantastic on audio too, with Will Patton narrating.
    • 5/5
      It has been a very long time since I read Cold Mountain but remember Frazier's prose, the way that natural world played its role in his story. And, I remember having a pretty knock down drag out argument over the ending.I think the ending of Nightwoods is a little more definitive but Frazier isn't one for making it completely clear. What he does do well is spin a tale full of suspense and fear and past violence coming full force into the presence. He reveals details on his own timeline, just at the moment when they will, he knows, hit you the hardest, wrapped up as you are in the story.Luce lives as a hermit in the old Lodge on the lake, seemingly contented with the "reimbursements" she receives for her life of solitude. These are mostly a deep connection with and gratitude towards the natural world. But she opens that solitary life to her niece and nephew after her sister dies. The children have been deeply wounded but Luce, with her patience and lack of expectations, works with them gently. Eventually, the world finds them and Frazier's tale spins fast and sometimes shockingly towards its end.A five star read if there ever was one.Read for the American Author Challenge
    • 5/5
      [Nightwoods] begins with this scenario---a woman named Luce has taken in twins--a boy and a girl--who do not speak. Gradually we learn that their mother was Luce's sister, who met a tragic end at the hands of a man who also may have abused the children. It is unclear whether the children used language before witnessing their mother's murder, but they are certainly traumatized now, and Luce is guided by pure instinct in her efforts to protect them and give them a sense of security. Her lifestyle is unconventional, to say the least, but it suits her, and gives the children a freedom they seem to appreciate. Unfortunately, they have a great affinity for and fascination with fire. There's a Faulknerian feel to these kids which Frazier must have fully intended. I was reminded of Byron Snopes' half-Indian children in Faulkner's [The Town] the minute I met them. Those little demons didn't speak, and were not to be trusted with matches either. Frazier's children, however, are more fearful than fearsome, unless you're a rooster. This book has an incredible sense of place, vivid characters, a gripping story, plenty of suspense and a bit of romance. A couple reviewers have used the term "Appalachian gothic" to describe it; that diminishes its strengths, I think.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed Nightwoods, but was a little let down by the ending. Frazier's writing saved it. You could hear the voices in your head, his dialog was so wonderful.Recommend.
    • 5/5
      Set in 1960s North Carolina, this author is able to capture the beauty of the wilderness and the injustices in life through Luce’s story. Luce inherits her murdered sister’s two traumatized children, changing her solitary lifestyle in ways she cannot foresee. Luce, with her own traumatic past, does what she can to get the children to interact with things other than fire and killing chickens. Things go slowly but well for them until the sister’s murdering husband comes to town, intent on finding his stolen money, believing it is with the children. Bud’s presence in town causes some interesting turns, including his strange friendship with the town’s policeman, Lit. This was a really great read, with the author revealing the characters’ pasts bit by bit, allowing the reader to totally understand and sympathize with the characters. This book has plenty of blood, trauma, and murder, but the other descriptions have this amazing gentleness, reflecting the way Luce welcomes the children into her quiet, solitary lifestyle in nature. The story is good, but the style of writing is truly unique and well worth the experience. Charles Frazier is an accomplished writer, allowing the reader to appreciate the beauty of the wilderness. 
    • 4/5
      "Nightwoods," tells the story of the hardships of living in Appalachia in North Carolina in the 1960s. Luce lives by herself in an old lodge that was built as a summer retreat. When the owner died, she took it upon herself to act as caretaker.She inherits her murdered sister's twins. She feels that she had no other choice since the alternative would be to have the twins split up and palced in adoption agencies.This is an example of Naturalism in literature when heredity and the character's environment predetermine the course of action for the character with little that the character could do to change their outcome.Bud is the children's father and a cold blooded killer. He reminded me of the wonderful character Anton Chiguth from "No Country for Old Men."As his path and that of Luce and the twins begins to converge, the suspense mounts and the book is hard to put down.Charles Frazier is a wonderful author and this novel reaffirms his place as one of the best novelists working today.
    • 3/5
      The action in this story, what there is of it, moves very slowly. For the first half of the book, nothing really happens at all. But then, suddenly, things start happening and connections start being made, and I couldn't help but feel that I missed some sort of catalyst in the narrative. It is entirely possible that I did miss some important bit, but since I'm pretty sure that I actually read every page, it seems more likely that Frazier decided that his readers would take a bit of the action on faith. In something like the reverse of dramatic irony, characters are suddenly referring to conversations and relationships of which the reader is unaware.This kind of storytelling leaves me scratching my head and flipping back through the book to see if I missed something. (It also has me wondering whether the author chose to relate action to the reader in this way because he couldn't figure out how to actually write the scene where the critical interactions occur.) Frazier is talented enough to pull off these sudden transitions in a way that's not as aggravating as it might be, but I did still feel cheated out of critical parts of an otherwise beautifully told story.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful prose. A direct style. Haunting evocative images arise from the novel. Charles Frazier is clearly a master of words. Charles Frazier's first novel, "Cold Mountain" really knocked me out when I read it a dozen or more years ago. Frazier is not a prolific writer so I was really looking forward to this when I heard it was coming out.It is a dark story. It made me sad. Our main character, Luce, is a common sense kind of person. I was drawn to her immediately. I wanted better for Luce, who has taken on an undeserved burden. Luce has not had an easy life, but she was now living a quiet life by herself away from the crowds as the caretaker of an old lodge in the rural North Carolina mountains, until she is given custody of the two feral children of her recently murdered sister. They are not only feral but pyromaniacs of a bad sort. And then on top of that, the sick twisted murderer, her sister's husband "Bud", gets a "get out of jail free" card and comes a lookin. Not a sweet story. Many people, in their lives, take on undeserved burdens. So this appeared to be Luce's burden and story. Luce had a simple outlook on life, which we are told early on: "All her life, the main lesson Luce had learned was that you couldn't count on anybody. So she guessed you could work hard to make yourself who you wanted to be and yet find that the passing years had transformed you beyond your own recognition. End up disappointed in yourself, despite your best efforts." At first I had to force myself to read this book slow. It would be all too easy to read this in a rush, because the story pulls one into it powerfully. But I wanted to drink in this writing. I wanted to keep the taste on my mental tongue and savor it. But the book itself sort of slowed itself down and it was easy to read a chapter or two at a time and reflect before picking the story back up. The book had such a dark tone to it that the romance that came in the second part of the novel surprised me and was a good touch. More than that. So what exactly was this story? We have wonderful descriptions of a rural off the track life and environment. But is this just another "bad things happen to good people" story? For a good part of the story I rather disliked the two children who more or less upended Luce's life. Their good for nothing father was pure scum. I eventually gained a bit of sympathy for the children when they finally began to open up. There are some well drawn supporting characters in the novel also. In some small way this dark powerful novel pleased me. I think maybe this story tells us that even in dark times there can be an unfailing spirit. We can pull up strength to persevere and even transform ourselves. This book is going to be in my head for a long time. Recommended.I received an ARC of Nightwoods through the LibraryThing early reviewer program. I do not think this influenced my review.
    • 4/5
      I just listened to this for a second time (Aug. 2014), not remembering it from the first time---still gets four stars. Frazier writes about the outdoors so fluidly that you can see it all in his descriptions.
    • 4/5
      Overdrive audio download

      Luce, a character whose strength is honed in solitude,, has retreated from her past and lives as caretaker of a remote, abandoned North Carolina mountain lodge.
      Her sister Lily is murdered, leaving behind a girl and a boy, twins whose father died before their birth.
      The mute, almost feral children arrive, by court decision, at Luce's doorstep.
      Luce and the children are the heart of the story.
      Bud, the stepfather, is in pursuit of the children.
      He's been acquitted of Lily's murder but the children pose a threat.
      Did they witness the murder?
      Do " the children possess loot he stole, loot in turn stolen from him by Lilly, loot he knifed her for in a fit of rage."?

      Also new to town is an old admirer of Luce.
      Stubblefield is a thoughtful and kind man who has inherited the lodge.
      He brings comfort to Luce and the troubled children.

      These facts form the foundation of the story.
      The mountains and countryside are beautifully depicted.
      The characters are vivid and the consistent forward motion of the story keeps you involved.
      The natural surroundings are an integral part of this tale.

      A worthwhile read.....★ ★ ★ ★
    • 3/5
      Frazier writes with a deeply-evocative sensibility of the Appalachian mountains and about the current of violence that runs through the lives of some of the people who live there. The principal characters -- Luce and the two children of her murdered sister -- have escaped from the violence in their past by living in and isolated derelict mountain lodge where Luce is the caretaker. Violence continues to stalk them when the murderous husband of Luce's husband shows up and the novel moves toward a suspenseful climax.The tone of the novel is somber and the plot line is enhanced by Frazier's skillful use of the mountain environment. The isolation the characters have sought as refuge they come to realize will not shield them and they determine in the end to confront the peril facing them in a dramatic fashion.While not quite achieving the depth as Frazier's Cold Mountain this is nonetheless well worth the read.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as a Good Reads First Reader winner. It took me a while to get into this book. With no quotes for the dialog it was very confusing. I had to keep rereading things to figure out what was going on. Sometimes there were dashes and sometimes just she said/he said in the middle of a paragraph. I wasn't liking the book at first and towards the end I began to like it. Had I not won this book I probably would never have picked it up. It is a tough read, and hard to get into at first. I think it's a book you need to read with no distractions around you and all at once if possible or you just get lost and distracted. It's one that won't stay with me.
    • 5/5
      A tense, gripping story with gorgeous writing, stunning descriptions and brilliant characters. A fairly short book that I was dismayed to finish!
    • 3/5
      Beautiful prose of North Carolina back country is lost on weak story of family feud. Slow start - warms to exciting cat and mouse through the wilderness - anticlimatic conclusion - left me feeling blah!
    • 5/5
      Another beautiful book by Charles Frazier. This book is about a self-exiled woman named Luce who has the care of her young niece and nephew thrust upon her when her sister is murdered by her husband. The children's stepfather is out to find them believing the children have taken his valuables. The story is set in the mountains of North Carolina in the 1960s. Frazier crafts this novel - it's as if each word is carefully chosen. Vivid images for each scene come through and his clever turns of phrase never stop delighting me. I enjoyed Cold Mountain tremendously but it wasn't until Thirteen Moons that I really came to understand just how talented he is. I was absolutely delighted to receive Nightwoods through the Early Readers program. Although I signed up for others, this is the ONE I wanted and I was not disappointed. Thank you LT!
    • 4/5
      This is the third book from Frazier and his knowledge and love for the North Carolina mountains shines through in his writing. Luce is alone and enjoys it for the most part, she is free to wander through the woods, read whenever she wants and seeks company only when lonely. When her sister is murdered she becomes the guardian of her sisters 2 children who do not speak and have an unhealthy interest in fires and starting them. Shell shocked from the witnessing of their mothers murder, they are exceedingly strange but Luce does her best to teach them and take care of them. Into this mix comes the murderer of her sister, her live in partner, who wants only to find the children and a possible clue to what their mother did with his illicit gained money. Also comes a love interest, the heir of the old boarding house Luce stayed on at as caretaker after the death of the owner. Interesting story, strong parts are the descriptions of nature with with Luce entertains and teaches the children, and Luce herself..
    • 5/5
      There is an all encompassing quiet that muffles “Nightwoods”. Perhaps it is due to the remote location of much of the story. Perhaps it comes from the detached nature of the main characters. Or maybe it comes from the overwhelming presence of Nature…and the sense that regardless of the human drama that takes place in the story, Nature will eventually reclaim these woods and restore balance. The main character, Luce, seems to grasp this instinctually, and she accepts her minor role in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes she seems far older than she is, because of this and because of all that she has gone through in her life. “That night in bed, WLAC playing low and not helping much, Luce couldn’t sleep for thinking about the black hole. She didn’t spend a second wondering what creatures live down there. One look and she knew nothing lived there. Life would only be in the way. The black hole was before life and beyond life. If you dipped a ladle of that water and drank it, visions would come so dark you wouldn’t want to live in the world that contained them. You’d be ready to flee toward the other darkness summed up in death, which is only distant kin to the black hole and the liquid it cups. A darkness left over from before Creation. A reminder of the time before light. Before these woods and these mountains and the earth and even the sun, there was a black hole filled with black water. The black held no reference to the green world around it. And what did the green world mean if the black was and forever had been?” The visuals in the book are amazing. Naturally, the descriptions of the woods are the most breathtaking, but even simple interior scenes are described in such a way that the reader can see and smell everything around. “Luce hadn’t been there since childhood, and yet not even the placement of the candy jar on the mantel had changed. The kind of place where antimacassars draped the backrests of purple velvet chairs, the seat cushions buffed to a pale silver nub by many decades of buttocks dating back nearly to the Grant administration. Bookcases everywhere, filled with leather Miltons and Burnses and Tennysons inscribed on the endpapers with the beautiful looping handwriting of dead people.” This is not to say that nothing happens in “Nightwoods”. Far from it. The most heinous of human sins take place in these woods, in this small town. “Hours into the climb, scenery loses its attraction. It’s nothing but ten feet of dirt and leaves in front of his aching feet. Bud is bored and thinking about violence, but trying not to, because violence is best accomplished spur-of-the-moment. Let it happen out of nowhere. Anything else, and you go from being a hothead manslaughterer to nothing but a cold first-degree murderer. Act with great purity – like there’s no past and no future, nothing but the red right now – and there’s a degree of innocence to it, no matter how heinous and bloody the outcome.” There is a heroine, a villain, and many people in between. And yet even then, there is a sense of quiet. Quiet desperation, quiet grief, quiet hopelessness. The emotions are strong, the actions are fierce…but the results seem to be muffled over time. “Nightwoods” is a series of terrible events in the lives of its human inhabitants, but the reader closes the book that over time, all will be smoothed over and resume its place in the stillness of this eternal forest.
    • 5/5
      In it's review of Cold Mountain, Newsweek magazine stated "Natural-born storytellers come along only rarely. Charles Frazier joins the ranks of that elite cadre on the first page of his astonishing debut." In his third novel Frazier proves himself to be, not just a natural-born storyteller, but a master of the craft. This well paced novel builds to a nail-biting conclusion and once you begin, you may as well settle in for the long haul, because you will not want to put it down. Frazier's descriptions of the land has you almost smelling the hemlocks and feeling the cold of the lake and the pitch darkness of the mountains at night and his prose is flawless. This book was a delight to read. I wish I could write a review that does justice to the book. Just read it. You won't regret it.
    • 4/5
      Nightwoods main character, Luce, is the caretaker of an abandoned, decaying summer lodge on a lake in Appalachia. Frazier aptly describes a lodge in disrepair— a metaphor for the losses in Luce’s life. But she is happy and at peace. Unconfined, her solitary life takes on an ethereal quality.Until the children. She took her murdered sister’s children because the state said they would be separated if she didn’t. The pyromaniac twins with a propensity for violence remind her in no way of her sweet departed sister. The “bad patch” they had been through was so devastating that they retreat into dark, secret places inside. One wonders how Luce musters the money and resourcefulness to care for the children after the shocking events of her own life.Luce is the driving force in the novel. She values her freedom and solitude. She has mysticism and quiet strength about her. “What I want most is the ability to whistle the song of every bird in the area.”Charles Frazier, author of Pulitzer Prize winner Cold Mountain, is a skilled wordsmith. The book is rich in description and the author casts a spell over us with Luce’s character. Frasier’s omission of the use of quotation marks is a mystery to this reviewer. Although we follow a circuitous route to figure out the story lines, the plodding plot comes together in the end. Nightwoods is aptly titled. The book is dark. Despite the violence wreaked upon humans, the peaceful and mysterious woods, home to soothing cricket sounds, hover over the book as a main character.Random House through Library Thing graciously supplied the review copy for my unbiased opinion.Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
    • 5/5
      An excellent novel. Frazier has all the right tools in his arsenal. Nightwoods tells the story of Luce, who inherits her sister’s twin children, after her sister is murdered by her husband. The children witness the murder, and are damaged by the experience and the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father. They don’t speak, they kill chickens, and they start fires. A suspenseful plot pulls the reader along.The other significant character is the setting, the mountains of western North Carolina and other areas of the South, from the 1960s. Maybe this is why I enjoyed the novel so much – that is the South of my childhood, and it rang true and vivid for me.Much better, in my opinion, that Frazier’s Cold Mountain or Thirteen Moons. It is violent, but the ending is much more satisfactory than his earlier novels. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Steeped in place and history, rich in characters, perspective and story, Nightwoods by Charles Frazier is a suspenseful, engaging and enlightening read. I admit to some bias as a reader very familiar and enamored with the mountains of North Carolina, and one who loves a strong female character, but I believe this novel is an exceptional piece of writing told in a unique and talented voice. I marked dozens of passages to reread the insightful prose and revisit the symbolism, philosophy and poetry in the author's words. Though not nearly as bleak as Cormack McCarthy's The Road, there is a similarity in sparseness in grammar and punctuation that contributes to the story, as well as a sense of inevitability comingled with hope and despair that permeates the pages. I was equally reminded of Amy Bloom's stunning novel Away, as both works feature exquisite style, an indifferent landscape that is as much character as setting, and a testament to the lengths a human will travel in the name of love. Bloom's Lillian believes that we live and we love the world, and we kid ourselves that the world loves us back. Luce's philosophy is sweet and simple: the natural world would go on and on just fine whether you watched it or not. Your existence was incidental. It is clear that Charles Frazier pays attention to the world around him, and in his writing he bears witness to its benign beauty.I highly recommend reading Nightwoods for the story, the prose and the talented craftsmanship Frazier draws upon to create this work of art.
    • 3/5
      I loved the writing in this book. The descriptions of Frazier's beloved North Carolina Appalachian mountain regions are breathtaking and vivid. Luce, the heroine, is a recluse living with the owner's permission in an abandoned hunting lodge. She is portrayed in haunting prose that makes her very real. When her murdered sister's two children come to live with her, she is forced to relinquish tranquility to take care of these almost-feral twins. Her sister's murderer is Luce's brother-in-law, exonerated in an unlikely scenario. At this point, there is a battle of good vs. evil that is reminiscent of an old-time western when the damsel in distress is aided by a newly-introduced suitor to outwit the "bad guy" who is in a desperate search for the money that he thinks the children can access. This novel is, for me, long on style and short on substance. I thought the plot was thin and the characters stereotypical with the exception of Luce. Maybe I shouldn't be as disappointed as I am with the plot and should just acknowledge the beautiful writing, but I probably wouldn't have finished it had I not received it as an ER book.
    • 5/5
      Nightwoods is a story that evokes emotion from the reader, both through the story itself and the authentic voice of the narrator. Luce is a woman who has been cast aside by society and by herself, left on the fringe. She comes to be the caretaker of her murdered sister’s twins and from here, the story evolves into an engrossing tale that hooks the reader and refuses to let them go until the very last page.I would describe Luce as the type of person I would personally want to hang out with, if she were real, that is. As uncomfortable as she is in her own skin, she never once compromises herself and her values for those around her. Her voice is authentic and rings from page one. I felt myself identifying with her and her plight, keeping me entranced by the story as I desperately turned the pages to find out what happened next in her life.Charles Frazier is a favorite author of mine, and this book does not disappoint. With a rich story and Frazier’s remarkable talents as a storyteller, the story is a can’t miss tale that takes you to Appalachia and surrounds you immediately with rich prose and an amazing story. And I loved trying the bacon with popcorn mentioned in the book. That alone is worth some praise.
    • 4/5
      Charles Frazier is a dynamic writer. His sentences are beautifully crafted, conjuring up images that put the reader right into the story.  His first book, Cold Mountain, was nothing short of phenomenal. When his second book, Thirteen Moons, was released several years ago, I began reading it with eagerness - only to stop midway, disappointed with the plot and characters. So, when Nightwoods became available, I wanted to give Frazier another try. People have sophomore slumps, and I was hoping that was the case for this talented writer.Nightwoods is the story of Luce, a young woman whose personal life was marked by tragedy and bad family relationships. She agrees to become the caretaker of an old, abandoned lodge in the North Carolina mountains - a place where she can be alone and away from people who inevitably hurt her. Tragically, Luce's sister was murdered, and the state wants to place her sister's twins into Luce's care. When the twins arrive, Luce knows she has her work cut out for her. The twins, Dolores and Frank, won't say a word and have a liking to starting fires. Luce, once alone and carefree, must now accept her fate as a guardian of very troubled children.Luce's situation is compounded when her sister's husband (and murderer) arrives in town, looking for money that he believes Luce is in possession of. Bud is a no-good, violent man, and Luce knows he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants.Frazier's superb writing style is in full force throughout Nightwoods. The reader gets a look at North Carolina mountain life - the good, bad and ugly. Unfortunately, I felt Frazier went to some extremes with his characters, especially the twins and their adventure during the last chapters of the book. As a fan of character-driven stories, this was a disappointment for me. But I am happy that Frazier seems to be on his game again, as Nightwoods is certainly a better story than Thirteen Moons.So if you loved Cold Mountain like me, go ahead and get a copy of Nightwoods. Know it's not perfect - but sit back and lavish in the wonderful writing of Charles Frazier.