Books

8vo. First UK edition. (First published in the USA in 1973). Original dark grey hardcovers, gilt. Jacket design by Graham Palfrey-Rogers. Fine in fine d/w. Cormac McCarthy's first two novels had been published in the UK by Andre Deutsch. It was Christopher MacLehose who championed this third novel and persuaded Chatto to take it on despite their misgivings about the amount of sex and violence. There was also some doubt about the appropriateness of the jacket art but the author gave his approval. Sales were disappointing and there was no UK paperback edition until 1989. Very uncommon.

Cormac McCarthy's 'Child of God' tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whose life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. McCarthy depicts the life of a violent young outcast and serial killer in 1960s Appalachian Tennessee. Though the narrative is stark, the protagonist's isolation and disaffection are depicted with empathy by McCarthy, whose prose reveals the layers of humanity in even the most desolate and detestable characters.