Stella Maris

‘Cormac McCarthy was such a virtuoso, his language was so rich and new . . . McCarthy worked close to some religious impulse, his books were terrifying and absolute. His sentences were astonishing.’ - Anne Enright-----‘A drought-busting, brain-vexing double act’ GuardianAlicia Western is the following: Twenty years old. A brilliant mathematician at the University of Chicago. And a paranoid schizophrenic who does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby.Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, profoundly moving companion to The Passenger. It is a powerful enquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and life itself by one of America’s finest writers.

Remarkable… a staggering achievement, His sentences have the solidity of stones and the clarity of diamonds, A true work of literature… If McCarthy’s goal was for these books to haunt readers long after they are set aside, then he has succeeded., Remarkable… [Stella Maris] harmonises both sadly and gorgeously with its recent predecessor. Side by side, both novels affirm the extraordinary poetry and strangeness of McCarthy’s vision, Like Bach’s concertos, these triumphant novels depart the realm of art and encroach upon science, aimed at some Platonic point beyond our reckoning where all spheres converge

The novels of the American writer, Cormac McCarthy, have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men – the latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture. McCarthy died in 2023 in Santa Fe, NM at the age of 89.