No Country for Old Men

For our destination X in our continuing reading around the world alpabetically, we have selected Texas and Mexico.

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.

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?

Of No Country for Old Men, the Spectator’s Robert Edric said “[This] is a compelling, harrowing, disturbing, sad, endlessly surprising and resonant novel” – while The Independent wrote ‘It’s hard to think of a contemporary writer more worth reading.’

For these reasons, we are pleased to have chosen this author and this book as our Book of the Month for June 2024. Please read along with us. The book is available to reserve from our bookshop HERE.

If you wish to attend the session to discuss the book with us and other readers, please contact our bookshop to make sure of reserving a place. Our sessions tend to reach full attendance capacity, so booking in beforehand is essential.