A soldier wounded in the Civil War, Inman turns his back on the carnage of the battlefield and begins the treacherous odyssey home to Cold Mountain, and to Ada, the woman he loved before the war began. As he attempts to make his way across the mountains, through the devastated landscape of a soon-to-be-defeated South, Ada struggles to make a living from the land her once-wealthy father left when he died. Neither knows if the other is still alive. Charles Frazier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Frazier) won the 1997 U.S. National Book Award for this historical novel. The language is beautiful and the story heartbreaking.
Released as a stunning film by Anthony Minghella in 2003 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159365/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm#cast) with Jude Law as Inman, Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe, and Renee Zellweger as Ruby Thewes. Available on DVD at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Mountain-DVD-Jude-Law/dp/B0001XLY8S/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1374225824&sr=1-1&keywords=cold+mountain
448 pages in Sceptre paperback edition.
ISBN 978-0340936320
Charles Frazier