The Passenger
A dark tale of mystery and human complexity
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Published:28th Sep '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This compelling novel follows Bobby Western, a salvage diver who uncovers a sunken jet and a dark conspiracy in The Passenger.
In The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy weaves a haunting tale that begins with a salvage diver named Bobby Western. Set against the backdrop of 1980 Mississippi, the story unfolds as Bobby plunges into the depths of the ocean, where he discovers a sunken jet containing nine bodies still strapped in their seats. The absence of the pilot's flight bag and the plane's black box raises questions about the mysterious disappearance of a tenth passenger. As Bobby grapples with the implications of his discovery, he finds himself entangled in a conspiracy that challenges his understanding of reality.
Haunted by the specters of his past, Bobby is not only burdened by the memory of his father, the inventor of the atomic bomb, but also by the enigmatic presence of his sister, who embodies both love and destruction in his life. The narrative oscillates between the gritty bar rooms of New Orleans and the desolate oil rigs off the Florida coast, creating a vivid landscape that mirrors Bobby's inner turmoil. The Passenger is a dark exploration of human nature, secrets, and the weight of history.
As one of McCarthy's final works, The Passenger serves as the first book in a duology, followed by Stella Maris. With his characteristic prose that blends beauty and brutality, McCarthy invites readers to confront the complexities of existence and the shadows that linger in the corners of our lives.
An appealing piece of work . . . gripping, with plenty of reflection and evocation * The Daily Telegraph *
The Passenger is like a submerged ship itself; a gorgeous ruin in the shape of a hardboiled noir thriller . . . What a glorious sunset song . . . It’s rich and it’s strange, mercurial and melancholic * The Guardian *
A moving and characteristically disconcerting addition to the oeuvre of one of America’s greatest writers * The Irish Times *
Critics have detected the influence on him of Faulkner and Hemingway, but this is to understate his achievement. The Passenger shows that McCarthy belongs in the company of Melville and Dostoevsky, writers the world will never cease to need * New Statesman *
[A] gripping story, written in McCarthy’s trademark acerbic style * i newspaper *
Kafka on the bayou * Observer *
Magisterial * Financial Times *
McCarthy’s formidable talents for dialogue, perfect sentences and descriptions of the natural world remain undiminished * The Times *
The Passenger also happens to be something of a masterpiece… It is [McCarthy’s] most ambitious work. * TIME *
The novels McCarthy published in 2022, at the age of 89, permanently resolve the question of whether McCarthy is a great novelist… together the books are the richest and strongest work of McCarthy’s career * The Atlantic *
An intellectual experience that’s not quite like anything else out there, laced with the eerie beauty that only Cormac McCarthy can offer. * Vox *
In Stella Maris and The Passenger, McCarthy invites us to consider hopelessness not just to give us hope but to compel us to make use of it. Having lived for nearly 100 years, he has given us what may well be the last great novels of the long 20th century. He may also help point us in a different direction for the twenty-first. * The Nation *
ISBN: 9780330457439
Dimensions: 197mm x 130mm x 32mm
Weight: 307g
432 pages