Press + Reviews
Podcasts & Radio
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Poured Over Podcast
B&N episode description: “Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, brings readers to the Great Depression-era American West with impeccably researched history in his new novel, The Trackers, featuring a vivid cast holding secrets and ambitions that transcend the past. Frazier talks about the photograph that inspired the characters, the excitement and drama of book tours, taking his time to get the language right and more with Poured Over host, Miwa Messer.”
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The Book Case with Kate & Charlie Gibson
ABC Audio episode description: “Beyond the rolling plains and purple mountains majesty, [Frazier] loves the stories of average Americans in extraordinary times and it comes across in everything he writes. His latest novel, The Trackers, […] takes place 100 years ago. His writing captures the optimism of the American ideal, and his descriptive powers continue to astound. We talk to him about his latest, and what it was about the Great Depression that inspired the book.”
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SouthBound
WFAE/SouthBound episode description: “When he was 40, an English professor from the North Carolina mountains decided he would try to write a novel. That professor was Charles Frazier, and that novel was Cold Mountain, which came out in 1997 and spent more than a year at the top of the bestseller list….”
“Frazier has spent the years since continuing to explore the hidden corners of American history in his novels…. I talked with Frazier about how to get history right in a piece of fiction, and what spurred him to become a writer after a long career as a teacher.”
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The Book Show
WAMC/The Book Show episode description: “From the New York Times bestselling author of Cold Mountain and Varina, Charles Frazier’s new novel, The Trackers, paints a vivid portrait of life in the Great Depression. The Trackers conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own.”
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Monocle on Sunday
Monocle episode description: “Tyler Brûlé hosts a special edition of the programme live from Asheville, North Carolina, with guests discussing the weekend’s top stories, as well as the best in business and craftsmanship from the region.”
Interviews & Profiles
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DEPRESSION-ERA TREK FUELS CHARLES FRAZIER’S LATEST SAGA
By Candice Dyer“Contrary to the breathless reports that greeted its publication, “Cold Mountain” was not Charles Frazier’s first book. That would be Adventuring in the Andes, a high-altitude hiking guide for the Sierra Club, which also features his photography. ‘The Himalayans were already taken,’ he deadpans. ‘It was in the early ‘80s, so before cellphones and GPS.’”
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CHARLES FRAZIER WANTS YOU TO WAIT BEFORE READING THE CLASSICS
By Charles FrazierWhat books are on your night stand?
In the Café of Lost Youth, by Patrick Modiano; Sleepless Nights, by Elizabeth Hardwick; The Philosophy of Modern Song, by Bob Dylan; Poems of the Late T’ang, translated by A.C. Graham.
What’s the last great book you read?
Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. I wouldn’t argue that it’s his best book, but it is my favorite. I love the leisureliness of its voice, the tone and mood of weariness. It makes me want to listen to very slow trumpet jazz while I’m reading it. Maybe “Chet Baker In Tokyo,” an equally dreamy masterpiece of the final years.
What book should nobody read until the age of 40?
I can’t think of a book that nobody should read until 40, but there are plenty that are better read or reread at that age or later. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that many great books we were assigned to read in school are far more enjoyable and have more to say when approached later in life.
But to narrow it down, I’ll randomly pull Anna Karenina out of a hat full of equally worthy titles. Reading that book patiently and with more life experience under one’s belt is an entirely different experience than blasting through it in a week for a college literature class.
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CHARLES FRAZIER HITS THE ROAD
By David Adams“A sharp economic downturn has rocked the U.S., upending the plans of young and old alike. Homeless encampments dot the landscape from Seattle to New York City. Climate disasters strike with alarming frequency, wiping out what little people have left. The president’s agenda is stymied by Congress and a Supreme Court that seems increasingly out of touch. Faith in the country’s institutions is at an all-time low.
“By the sound of it, Charles Frazier’s new novel, The Trackers (Ecco, Apr.), could be the first contemporary story he’s published. But it’s set in 1937, deep into the Great Depression, and Frazier’s protagonist, Val Welch, has been handed a lifeline that nowadays sounds far-fetched—a government commission to paint a mural on the wall of a post office in rural Dawes, Wyo. It’s the start of an adventure that will see Val hit the road in pursuit of a mysterious woman, a stolen painting, and an idea of his future.”
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CHARLES FRAZIER ON HOW THE PAST CONVERSES WITH THE PRESENT
By Jane Ciabattari“Charles Frazier, who will forever be known for Cold Mountain, his National Book Award winning, mega-selling 1997 first novel, opens his fifth novel, The Trackers, with an image that tells us exactly what we’re in for, and also reveals the author’s inspiration. ‘In a muddy black-and-white newspaper photograph I’m standing on a scaffold made from two tall stepladders with board running between them,’ narrator Val tells us. ‘I’ve barely begun the mural, haven’t even started putting color on the wall of the brand-new post office.’
“This photograph outlines the triangle at the center of the novel. Why begin here? I asked Frazier in our email exchange. ‘My ideas for novels tend to arrive in the form of an image, either seen or imagined, that pops up unexpectedly and then becomes unshakable,’ he explained.”
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CHARLES FRAZIER, A MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS, SETS OUT
By CJ Lotz“‘It’s really inconvenient and I’ve tried to change it and it just doesn’t work,’ says Charles Frazier of his writing routine….
“This might be one of those ‘if it ain’t broke…’ scenarios, as Frazier’s writing routine has solidified him as one of the living greats of Southern literature. Frazier is best known for his 1997 debut, the Civil War–set Cold Mountain, which went on to top bestseller lists, win the National Book Award, and become a film starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. His later books, including Thirteen Moons, Nightwoods, and Varina, were also set in Western North Carolina, Frazier’s homeland. His latest novel, The Trackers, takes his characters farther afield during the Great Depression: out West, to San Francisco, and to the Gulf Coast and Florida (Frazier drew inspiration for that section from his own experience owning a horse farm—a refuge for retired show horses—with his wife in Central Florida around Ocala National Forest). Here, the author shares some of his favorite North Carolina memories, how a photo inspired his new book, and what he really thought of those Southern accents in the film adaptation of Cold Mountain.”
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THE RIGHT TRACK: ON THE TRAIL WITH CHARLES FRAZIER
By Wiley Cash | Photos by Mallory Cash“The first time I met Charles Frazier was in Asheville back in the spring of 2016. Along with several other authors, we had been invited to participate in a fundraiser at the Asheville Community Theater.
“I knew most of the authors there that evening, but I didn’t know Frazier, and I was nervous about meeting him. I had read Cold Mountain after it won the National Book Award in 1997, and then I saw the Oscar-winning film, which starred Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, when it was released in 2003. I’d read — and loved — the two novels he’d published in the intervening years.
“But apparently, Frazier wasn’t one bit nervous about meeting me. He walked right up to me backstage and said, ‘I was up in Hot Springs a few months ago, and I saw that you were scheduled to do an event in town. I left a note for you at the public library. Did you get it?’
“Reader, I was too shocked that Frazier even knew who I was to be shocked by his reliance on paper technology. Needless to say, we’ve been friends ever since. He joined me onstage a year later for an in-conversation event for the launch of my novel The Last Ballad, and I did the same for him when his novel Varina was released in 2018.”
READ MORE via Walter Magazine, O.Henry Magazine, SouthPark Magazine, PineStraw Magazine
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COLD MOUNTAIN AUTHOR CHARLES FRAZIER ON ASHEVILLE’S MURALS, NEW NOVEL THE TRACKERS
By Karen Chávez“Not many people realize Charles Frazier, the National Book Award-winning author of Cold Mountain, was born in Asheville, the author told the Citizen Times…
“In an hour-long interview, the 72-year-old author traveled through his childhood, the genesis of the idea for “The Trackers,” the murals of Asheville and the geometry of his characters.”
Reviews
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Booklist (starred review)
“Frazier is in top form for his fifth novel, which traverses America in its portrait of contrasting Depression-era lives. …[T]he writing hums with spectacular word-images [and] mystery ignites the plot. The Old West still lingers in this propulsive tale of individualistic characters striving to beat the odds.”
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Washington Post
“The book’s continental scope proves that the lavishly talented Charles Frazier is not just a regional novelist. The Trackers is a novel of suspense with an all-American sting.”
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Associated Press
“Frazier deftly blends an historical perspective throughout his fictional tale…Even though it’s set 86 years ago, there are moments that are eerie in their echoes of the present…There’s a lot more worth savoring in The Trackers, including reflections on the meaning of art, the mythos of the American West, and what it really takes to start again.”
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Minneapolis Star Tribune
“If you stop to question the tale being told, you risk missing the point, which is to be carried along on an entertaining journey through familiar territory, well equipped with the apt historical coordinates to guide you on your way.”
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Chapter16.org
“Charles Frazier’s novels possess scope and grandeur [and] his latest novel, The Trackers, contributes another installment to his rewriting of the American mythos.”