This magnificent novel by one of Americas finest writers is the epic of one mans remarkable journey, set in nineteenth-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home. In a card game with a white Indian named Featherstone, Will wins for a brief moment a mysterious girl named Claire, and his passion and desire for her spans this novel. As Wills destiny intertwines with the fate of the Cherokee Indians including a Cherokee Chief named Bear he learns how to fight and survive in the face of both nature and men, and eventually, under the Corn Tassel Moon, Will begins the fight against Washington City to preserve the Cherokees homeland and culture. And he will come to know the truth behind his belief that only desire trumps time. Brilliantly imagined, written with great power and beauty by a master of American fiction, Thirteen Moons is a stunning novel about a mans passion for a woman, and how loss, longing and love can shape a mans destiny over the many moons of a life.From the Hardcover edition.