Brutally violent, Blood Meridian is the story of one teenage runaway in the nineteenth-century American South, as a sadistic gang unleashes its massacre across the desert land. It is the work that sealed Cormac McCarthy’s reputation as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers.

‘[A] brilliant, uncompromising work of fiction – imagine if the authors of the King James Bible, their hands guided by Satan, wrote a western’ – The Times

Through the hostile landscape of the Texas–Mexico border wanders the Kid, a fourteen year-old Tennessean who is quickly swept up in the relentless tide of blood.

A group known as the Glanton gang hunt Indigenous Americans, collecting scalps as their bloody trophies. At the centre of this violence stands Judge Holden: a massive, hairless man, mysterious if not supernatural, erudite and cold-blooded. He is singularly extreme in his sadistic violence.

But the apparent chaos is not without order – the Glanton gang, too, are stalked as prey.

Read as both a brilliant subversion of the Western novel and a blazing example of that form, it is a powerful, mesmerizing and savagely beautiful novel – and one of the most important works in American fiction of the last century.

‘In Blood Meridian, McCarthy reaches the peak of his style: spare and ornate at once, repetitious but endlessly readable’ – Guardian

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.

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As a sex-positive asexual man with HIV, Greg’s been told it’s just too complicated to be in a relationship with him. His latest boyfriend turns out to yet another in a long line of guys who say they understand asexuality only to put pressure on him to perform. Six months later, still despondent over this latest betrayal, Greg doesn’t have any expectations when he joins his friends at their favorite West Hollywood club. Meeting a sexy silver fox was definitely not on the agenda, nor was wanting to get to know the man better, but unfortunately, Holden’s leaving the next morning for the East Coast. As a flight attendant, Greg’s schedule has him out of town the following week. Regretfully, they trade phone numbers and part ways.

Holden has been in the closet his entire life. First with his conservative parents, then in the Navy, and now as an employee of a military contractor. It’s safer pretending to be straight. The only time Holden steps out of the closet is when he’s on a business trip. Quickies and hook-ups have been the name of the game for him for nearly thirty years. Now nearly fifty, Holden’s getting tired of it, but only has a few more years before he can live his life on his own terms. Then he goes to Neon and meets Greg. Even after Greg refuses to go back to Holden’s hotel room and they part ways, he can’t stop thinking about Greg and wishing he’d been able to say yes to dinner the following night. But then Greg doesn’t call or text him, so Holden figures the invite was just a way to let the old guy down easy.

A week later, Holden’s got a meeting in Denver, and who shows up as part of the flight crew? It’s Greg, who takes one look at Holden and…if looks could kill, Holden would be a smoldering pile of ash. Undaunted, Holden tries to talk to Greg during the flight only to be shut down and told to return to his seat. But fate has a different idea.

Content Advisory: please see the copywrite page for potential triggers.

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