The Sunset Limited - (Vintage International) by Cormac McCarthy (Paperback)

About the Book

McCarthy's new play packs all the wallop of his gut-wrenching fiction. "The Sunset Limited," though, is not about blood and guts but about the battle for the human soul.

Book Synopsis

From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road - A startling encounter on a New York subway platform leads two strangers to a run-down tenement where a life or death decision must be made.

In that small apartment, "Black" and "White," as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history, mining the origins of two fundamentally opposing world views. White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the men-though he is just as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is desperate to deny it.

Their aim is no less than this: to discover the meaning of life.

Deft, spare, and full of artful tension, The Sunset Limited is a beautifully crafted, consistently thought-provoking, and deceptively intimate work by one of the most insightful writers of our time.

Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Review Quotes

"Seductively written ... there is an abstract power in the mysteriousness of Mr. McCarthy's vision's allowing for a multitude of interpretations." --New York Times

"A brilliantly articulated piece, penned by a wildly acclaimed fiction writer. Nothing short of dazzling. So astonishingly effecting, so powerful, so stimulating!" --Chicago Tribune

About the Author

The novels of the American writer, Cormac McCarthy, have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men--the latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture. He died in 2023.