Guardian
‘One of the greatest American novels of this or any time’
Sunday Times
‘A uniquely brilliant book, told in language as subtly beautiful as its setting’
Observer
‘A darkly shining work, executed with consummate skill and much subtlety – the effect is magnificent’
Product Description
The novel that established McCarthy at the forefront of contemporary American writing
Book Description
VOLUME ONE OF THE BORDER TRILOGY John Grady Cole is the last bewildered survivor of long generations of Texas ranchers. Finding himself cut off from the only life he has ever wanted, he sets out for Mexico with his friend Lacey Rawlins. Befriending a third boy on the way, they find a country beyond their imagining: barren and beautiful, rugged yet cruelly civilized; a place where dreams are paid for in blood. All The Pretty Horses is an acknowledged masterpiece and a grand love story: a novel about childhood passing, along with innocence and a vanished American age. Steeped in the wisdom that comes only from loss, it is a magnificent parable of responsibility, revenge and survival. ‘A darkly shining work . . . executed with consummate skill and much subtlety – the effect is magnificent’ John Banville, Observer ‘A uniquely brilliant book . . . told in language as subtly beautiful as its desert setting. One of the most important pieces of American writing of our time’ Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times
From the Back Cover
A critical triumph, this is the story of John Grady Cole, who at 16 finds himself at the dying end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. To escape a society moving in all the wrong directions, Cole and two fellow travellers set out for Mexico, a land at once beautiful and desolate, rugged and cruelly civilised.
But what begins as an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, leads, in fact, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. Within months, one of the boys is dead, and the other two aged beyond their years.
A story about childhood passing, innocence and an American age, here is a grand story and an education in responsibility, revenge and survival.
'All the Pretty Horses' is truly a masterpiece.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Cormac McCarthy is the author of ten acclaimed novels, most recently The Road. Among his honours are the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
