Description

Savage violence and cruel morality reign in the backwater deserts of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, a tale of one man’s dark opportunity – and the darker consequences that spiral forth.

Adapted for the screen by the Coen Brothers (Fargo, True Grit), winner of four Academy Awards (including Best Picture).

‘A fast, powerful read, steeped with a deep sorrow about the moral degradation of the legendary American West’ – Financial Times

1980. Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam veteran, is hunting antelope near the Rio Grande when he stumbles upon a transaction gone horribly wrong. Finding bullet-ridden bodies, several kilos of heroin, and a caseload of cash, he faces a choice – leave the scene as he found it, or cut the money and run. Choosing the latter, he knows, will change everything.

And so begins a terrifying chain of events, in which each participant seems determined to answer the question that one asks another: how does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?

‘It’s hard to think of a contemporary writer more worth reading’ – Independent

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Praise for Cormac McCarthy:

‘McCarthy worked close to some religious impulse, his books were terrifying and absolute’ – Anne Enright, author of The Green Road and The Wren, The Wren

‘His prose takes on an almost biblical quality, hallucinatory in its effect and evangelical in its power’ – Stephen King, author of The Shining and the Dark Tower series

‘In presenting the darker human impulses in his rich prose, [McCarthy] showed readers the necessity of facing up to existence’ – Annie Proulx, author of Brokeback Mountain

Publisher Review

No Country for Old Men is a severed head and shoulders over anything else written in America this year. * Independent on Sunday * A Western thriller with a racy plot and punchy dialogue, perfect for a lazy Sunday. * The Times * [An] utterly absorbing, chilling tale . . . One of the most sinister characters in modern American fiction. * Herald * A fast, powerful read, steeped with a deep sorrow about the moral degradation of the legendary American West. * Financial Times * It's hard to think of a contemporary writer more worth reading. * Independent * No Country for Old Men is a compelling, harrowing, disturbing, sad, endlessly surprising and resonant novel. -- Robert Edric * Spectator *