Cold Mountain has impressed reviewers as well as the reading public, Civil War buffs as well as readers antagonistic to Civil War literature, hawks as well as doves. Its overarching simplicity of situation embraces a remarkable complexity of incident and detail that can provide rich material for group discussions. Readers are moved, charmed, and disturbed by Cold Mountain, and are usually eager to talk about its characters, meaning, and effect.

1. Which do you find more interesting, the story of Inman's journey home or the story of Ada's struggle for survival? Why?

Is Cold Mountain more a "man's book" or a "woman's book"?

2. Is there any significant sequence to the episodes of Inman's journey? Must Frazier tell these things in this particular order or could the events be reordered without any significant change to the novel?

3. Cold Mountain is a novel about a handsome couple separated by...