The Trackers: A Novel

Written by Charles Frazier

Narrated by Will Patton

From the New York Times bestselling author of Cold Mountain and Varina, a stunning new novel that paints a vivid portrait of life in the Great Depression

Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.

A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.

One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.

In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Apr 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9780062948113

Charles Frazier

Charles Frazier is the author of Cold Mountain, an international bestseller that won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy-Award winning film by Anthony Minghella. He is also the author of the bestselling novels Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods.

Reviews for The Trackers

[Bethann Dudley McCain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Remarkably predictable. The last 3rd or so gets pretty sloppy—you can tell the moment the author realized they were spending too much time on character studies of Hooverville residents and anonymous swamp people and got on with it. Unfortunately the transition from 30s road trip to westcoast neo-noir is jarring and abrupt.

Farrow character is very interesting, it’s worth finishing the book just to get another little scene with him.

[Linda O'Donnell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read Cold Mountain and Varina by this author. The Trackers is not quite Cold Mountain, but runs close. Frazier is wonderfully adept at ensuring that you see, feel, smell the things he describes. His characters ring true and you come to believe them and think you can predict their actions. Only to some extent, though. I listened to the book on audio and Will Patton was the narrator. A perfect fit for this book. I liked this one well enough to look for a physical copy to read for myself.

[Amber Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frazier has the proven ability to compose a story that earns the descriptor “literary” without ever feeling like work to the reader. This book could have been a campfire story in a setting straight from its own pages, or a poem—an ode to landscape and half-tamed wilderness, to searching emotion and desperation. It’s a song of cowboys and open road and love and aspirations, and art. Above all, art. I loved Val and his wit, Pharaoh and his wisdom. I highly recommend both the book and the narrator.