Varina

A Novel

By: Charles Frazier

Narrated by: Molly Parker

In his powerful fourth novel, Charles Frazier returns to the time and place of Cold Mountain, vividly bringing to life the chaos and devastation of the Civil War.

With her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects a life of security as a Mississippi landowner. He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history - culpable regardless of her intentions.

The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with "bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit."

Intimate in its detailed observations of one woman's tragic life and epic in its scope and power, Varina is a novel of an American war and its aftermath. Ultimately, the audiobook is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences.

©2018 3 Crows Corporation (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

On my top 10

Chilling and surreal and two words I would use to describe this gloriously poetic book.

politics, poetry and people

History presented poetically is what keeps it alive. what bridges our past to our present, looking with hope toward our future. Charles Frazier creates paintings with words and stories which sing songs of American people, places and politics. Well worth listening for style and story.

Narration a disappointment

Narration brings this otherwise excellent Frazier book down a disappointing degree. Clearly delivered and well-articulated, it is understandable, but that’s the best that can be said of it.

Draws you in...

Beautiful, rich storytelling filled with texture and a sense of being there with the characters.

Awful narration

The narrator used a monotonous tone throughout, making it difficult to differentiate which character was talking. She seems not to have read the book herself. Words, especially proper nouns, were mispronounced all through the book, and her inflections are extremely awkward. I finished the book only because I was reading it for a book club.

Wonderful Writing!

So enjoyed this book and Charles Frazier’s superb writing. I have read all his books and look forward to the next one.

Audio Varina

I absolutely loved this story. At times I felt the audio reading was inconsistent. Sometimes too slow. If I increased the speed, it was too fast at times. Overall though, I highly recommend this story in an audio version.

A special glimpse of Civil War era history

Enjoyed a women's perspective of life before, during, and after the Civil War. The au dio version is harder to follow because the time shifts do often, but you get used to it.

What a treat from start to finish

I knew nothing about Varina and next to nothing about Jefferson Davis and this was a wonderful opportunity to learn about them in a way both empathetic and damning at the same time. Fraiziers writing and Parker’s narration are perfectly suited to each other. The length of the book also seemed just right to escape to for a time but didn’t feel like a long march.

Wonderful to hear from a wife’s point of view.

As a southerner I really did enjoy hearing a different perspective on life before and after the war. Most of which I’ve never even thought about. I’ll listen again.