Charles Frazier's novel, Cold Mountain, tells the heart-wrenching tale of two twenty year-olds and their separate lives during the Civil War. Ada and Inman, destined to be together, try to rebuild their lives from the desperation and disaster of the war, all the while trying to find a way to see each other again--whilst they are so far apart. It also blends the horrors of war into their current lives, and the corruption that has scarred them forever.

The novel opens with a tranquil, almost deserted and eerily peaceful scene. Inman, a young man, is sitting in a hospital bed, apparently a victim of a war wound to the nape of the neck. He tells of his boring time in the hospital, and how he watches out the window as if to get a glimpse of real life without encompassing himself in it--since he has been inside for...