Cities of the Plain

Regular price €17.50
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
1950s
A01=Cormac McCarthy
adventure
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
amercian literature
american frontier decline
american literature
american southwest
americana
Author_Cormac McCarthy
automatic-update
Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
Category=FBC
Category=FJW
Category=FV
Category=FXD
Category=FXL
Category=FXR
classic
coming of age
COP=United Kingdom
cowboy
cross border romance
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
doomed love story
epic
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
expedition
farm
forbidden love
friendship
frontier mythology
fugitive
historical fiction
journey
Language_English
literary gifts for men
mexican border
Mexico
midcentury
new mexico cowboys
PA=Available
pistol
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
ranch
ranch life
rancher
ranching
romance
runaway
rural americana
saga
softlaunch
southwest historical drama
texas
tragic western romance
trilogy
western
wild west

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035003761
  • Weight: 213g
  • Dimensions: 130 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 04 Aug 2022
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns

Two men marked by boyhood adventures now stand together, forced to confront a country changing beyond recognition. Cities of the Plain brings Cormac McCarthy's legendary Border Trilogy to its brutal, inevitable conclusion.

'The completed trilogy emerges as a landmark in American literature' – Guardian


1952, New Mexico. John Grady Cole, last seen in All the Pretty Horses, works as a ranch hands alongside Billy Parnham, of The Crossing. These are the dying days of the American frontier.

From the north, the military encroaches upon the ranch. To the south are the mountains of Mexico, the pull of which prove irresistible to John Grady. And so it is that, when he falls in love with a sex worker south of the border, events are set into motion that will prove as dangerous as they are unstoppable.

'This haunting, deeply felt novel completes one of the literary masterworks of the 1990s' – Telegraph

'Like a slow-acting hallucinogen, the book has managed to transform a Texas boy of sixteen looking for adventure into a mysterious figure that augurs the destruction of the world' – Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room


Cities of the Plain is the final novel in the Border Trilogy. It is preceded by the first two volumes: All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing.

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

'[I]n 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

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

Cormac McCarthy was the author of many acclaimed novels, including Blood Meridian, Child of God and The Passenger. Among his honours are the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 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. McCarthy died in 2023 in Santa Fe, NM at the age of 89.

More from this author