Suttree

In this semi-autobiographical work, a man abandons his life of privilege to live among eccentrics, criminals and the impoverished of Knoxville.

Suttree is a humorous, compelling tapestry of life on the edge from Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road and Blood Meridian. ‘Suttree contains a humour that is Faulknerian in its gentle wryness, and a freakish imaginative flair' – Times Literary Supplement1951.

Cornelius Suttree lives alone, exiled on a disintegrating houseboat on the wrong side of the Tennessee River.

As we meet him, Suttree watches the police haul the body of a suicidal man from the water.

Amongst the living, the river is home to hermits, sex workers, alcoholics – and a witch. Conjuring James Joyce's Ulysses, Suttree wanders the river with a detachment and wry humour, encountering a broad cast of humanity as he does – even as dereliction and destitution threaten the last of his remaining dignity. 'Suttree is like a good, long scream in the ear' – New York TimesPraise 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