"Cold Mountain" novelist Charles Frazier is releasing a new book.

The Random House Publishing Group said Tuesday that "Nightwoods" will be released in October. The novel takes place in rural North Carolina in the 1950s and tells of a young woman who cares for her murdered sister's twins.

"Cold Mountain," Frazier's debut work about a Civil War soldier's return home, sold more than 2 million copies and won the National Book Award in 1997.

Afterward, the North Carolina native made news by leaving his publisher, Grove/Atlantic, to accept an $8 million deal with Random House. His second novel, "Thirteen Moons," came out in 2006. Random House says it has sold about 500,000 copies.

"Cold Mountain" was made into a 2003 movie starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger.