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Cover of The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

The Crossing

Book 2 of The Border Trilogy

  • 432 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 1994
  • 30 editions

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1 About this book

Following All the Pretty Horses in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a novel whose force of language is matched only by its breadth of experience and depth of thought. In the bootheel of New Mexico hard on the frontier, Billy and Boyd Parham are just boys in the years before the Second World War, but on the cusp of unimaginable events.

First comes a trespassing Indian and the dream of wolves running wild amongst the cattle lately brought onto the plain by settlers - this when all the wisdom of trappers has disappeared along with the trappers themselves. So Billy sets forth at the age of sixteen on an unwitting journey into the souls of boys, animals and men.

Having trapped a she-wolf he would restore to the mountains of Mexico, he is long gone and returns to find everything he left behind transformed utterly in his absence.

  • Wilderness areas
  • Human-animal relationships
  • Coming of age
  • New mexico
  • Lobos
  • Boys
  • Wolves
  • Muchachos

2 About Cormac McCarthy

1933–2023

Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Gothic genres. His works often include graphic depictions of violence, and his writing style is characterized by a sparse use of punctuation and attribution.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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