Cormac McCarthy · 1992 · coming-of-age
Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel. Sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole and his friend Rawlins ride south from San Angelo, cross the Rio Grande near Langtry into Mexico, and find work breaking horses on a Coahuila hacienda. A doomed love affair and a stray companion land them in the brutal prison at Saltillo, and John Grady rides back into Texas having lost his boyhood on the far side of the border.
- 1San Angelo
His grandfather dead and the family ranch sold from under him, sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole saddles up with his friend Lacey Rawlins and rides south out of West Texas, looking for the cowboy life that is vanishing at home.
- 2Langtry
Near Langtry the two boys swim their horses across the Rio Grande into Mexico, joined by a strange young runaway named Blevins whose stolen horse and hot temper will bring disaster down on them all.
- 3La Purisima
Deep in the mountains of Coahuila they find work at the great hacienda of La Purisima, where John Grady's gift with wild horses wins him a place - and a forbidden love for Alejandra, the owner's beautiful daughter.
- 4Saltillo
Betrayed and arrested, the boys are hauled to the murderous prison at Saltillo, where Blevins is executed on the road and they must fight with knives simply to stay alive until an unseen hand buys John Grady's freedom.
- 5Texas
Hardened and heartbroken, having reclaimed his horses and lost far more, John Grady at last recrosses the border and rides back alone into a Texas that no longer feels like home - a boy no longer.