No Country for Old Men
First edition cover
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| Author | Cormac McCarthy |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
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Publication date
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July 19, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 57352812 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3563.C337 N6 2005 |
No Country for Old Men is a 2005 novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. The story occurs in the vicinity of the United States–Mexico border in 1980 and concerns an illegal drug deal gone awry in the Texas desert back country.
The title of the novel derives from the first line of the 1926 poem "Sailing to Byzantium" by W. B. Yeats.
The book was adapted into the 2007 movie No Country for Old Men which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican–American border in remote Terrell County in southwest Texas.
In 1980, Llewelyn Moss – while hunting antelope – stumbles across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry which has left everyone dead but a single badly wounded Mexican who pleads with Moss for water. Moss responds that he does not have any and searches the rest of the vehicles, finding a truck full of heroin. He searches for the "last man standing" and finds him dead some ways off under a tree with a satchel containing $2.4 million in cash. He takes the money and returns home. Later, however, he feels remorse for leaving the wounded man and returns to the scene with a jug of water only to find that the wounded man had since been shot and killed. When Moss looks back to his truck parked on the ridge overlooking the valley, another truck is there. After being seen, he tries to run which sparks a tense chase through a desert valley. This is the beginning of a hunt for Moss that stretches for most of the remaining novel. After escaping from his pursuers, Moss sends his wife, Carla Jean, to her mother in Odessa, Texas, while he leaves his home with the money.
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates the drug crime while trying to protect Moss and his young wife, with the aid of other law enforcement. Bell is haunted by his actions in World War II, leaving his unit to die, for which he received a Bronze Star. Now in his late 50s, Bell has spent most of his life attempting to make up for the incident when he was a 21-year-old soldier. He makes it his quest to resolve the case and save Moss. Complicating things is the arrival of Anton Chigurh; a hitman hired to recover the money. Chigurh uses a captive bolt pistol (called a "stungun" in the text) to kill many of his victims (and to destroy several cylinder locks to open doors), as well as a silenced shotgun. Carson Wells, a rival hitman and ex–Special Forces officer who is familiar with Chigurh, is also on the trail of the stolen money. After a brutal shootout that spills across the Mexican border and leaves both Moss and Chigurh wounded, Moss recovers at a Mexican hospital while Chigurh patches himself up in a hotel room with stolen supplies. While recuperating, Moss is approached by Wells, who offers to give him protection in exchange for the satchel and tells him his current location and phone number, instructing him to call when he has "had enough".
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