Cormac McCarthy plumbs the depths of human degradation in Child of God his most brutally
violent shocking work. From the author of Blood Meridian and The Road . 1960s Tennessee.
Lester Ballard is a violent solitary and introverted young backwoodsman dispossessed on his
ancestral land. Homeless indulging in voyeurism he is accused of rape. When he is released
from jail he begins to haunt the hilly landscape - preying upon its population unleashing his
impulse for sexualised violence. Commonplace humanity becomes grotesque and as the story
hurtles toward its unforgettable conclusion McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life
with empathy and lyricism. 'A powerful and talented writer able to elicit compassion for his
protagonist however terrible his action' - Sunday Times 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
