The Orchard Keeper

Set in rural Tennessee between the world wars, The Orchard Keeper is the unique, darkly biblical debut novel from the legendary author of Blood Meridian and The Road , Cormac McCarthy. 'McCarthy has the best kind of Southern style' – New York Times John Wesley Rattner is a young boy when his father is murdered. Marion Sylder, an outlaw and bootlegger, strangled him to death. By chance, John and Marion will meet. They will not recognize each other; John will not know what this man has done. An experimental debut following in the footsteps of William Faulkner, this is a magnificent conjuring of an American landscape – and a devastating portrayal of innocence lost. Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature. 'A complicated and evocative exposition of the transience of life' – Harper’s 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

Set in rural Tennessee between the world wars, The Orchard Keeper is the unique, darkly biblical debut novel from the legendary author of Blood Meridian and The Road , Cormac McCarthy. 'McCarthy has the best kind of Southern style' – New York Times John Wesley Rattner is a young boy when his father is murdered. Marion Sylder, an outlaw and bootlegger, strangled him to death. By chance, John and Marion will meet. They will not recognize each other; John will not know what this man has done. An experimental debut following in the footsteps of William Faulkner, this is a magnificent conjuring of an American landscape – and a devastating portrayal of innocence lost. Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature. 'A complicated and evocative exposition of the transience of life' – Harper’s 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

The first novel from one of America's most celebrated novelists, the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road. Set is a remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, it is the story of a young boy and a bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father. The boy, John Wesley Rattner, and the outlaw, Marion Sylder-together with Rattner's Uncle Ather, who belongs to a former age in his communion with nature and his stoic independence-enact a drama that seems born of the land itself. All three are heroes of an intense and compelling celebration of values lost to time and industrialization. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.

The first novel from one of America's most celebrated novelists, the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road. Set is a remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, it is the story of a young boy and a bootlegger who, unbeknownst to either of them, has killed the boy's father. The boy, John Wesley Rattner, and the outlaw, Marion Sylder-together with Rattner's Uncle Ather, who belongs to a former age in his communion with nature and his stoic independence-enact a drama that seems born of the land itself. All three are heroes of an intense and compelling celebration of values lost to time and industrialization. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.