Order of Book Series
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Cormac McCarthy Books in Order

17 books are credited to Cormac McCarthy, published between 1965 and 2024; 1 of them appeared after Cormac McCarthy's death in 2023. The first book is The Orchard Keeper (1965) and the newest is The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2024). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
17
Published
1965–2024
Confirmed
17 of 17 titles
Pages on record
3,629 in 13 of 17 books
Reading time
60–91 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 3,629 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 13 of 17 titles with a page count on record.

See all 17 books in order Printable Cormac McCarthy checklist
Photo of Cormac McCarthy, author of the Passenger series

Cormac McCarthy's fiction moves from Tennessee to the ranch country of the American West, with fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and psychological pressure as its material. The Orchard Keeper (1965) opens the catalogue, followed by Outer Dark (1968), Child of God (1973), Suttree (1979), Blood Meridian (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992) and The Crossing (1994). Plays and screenplays are catalogued beside the novels, and the listing reaches a graphic novel adaptation of The Road in 2024.

Cormac McCarthy wrote across genres including Western, post-apocalyptic and Southern Gothic fiction, exploring violence and human nature in spare prose. He won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

How many Cormac McCarthy books are there?

Cormac McCarthy has 17 books, released between 1965 and 2024. 1 of them were published after Cormac McCarthy's death in 2023. 2 of them belong to the Passenger series.

Cormac McCarthy Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 17 Cormac McCarthy books in the order they were released, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy (1965)
  2. Cover of Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy (1968)
  3. Cover of Child of God by Cormac McCarthy (1973)
  4. Cover of Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (1979)
  5. Cover of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
  6. Cover of All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, book 1 of the Border Trilogy (1992)
  7. Cover of The Stonemason by Cormac McCarthy, book 1 of the Standalone Plays series (1994)
  8. Cover of The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, book 2 of the Border Trilogy (1994)
  9. Cover of The Gardener's Son by Cormac McCarthy, book 2 of the Standalone Plays series (1996)
  10. Cover of Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy, book 3 of the Border Trilogy (1998)
  11. Cover of The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy, book 3 of the Standalone Plays series (2006)
  12. Cover of The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
  13. Cover of The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy, book 4 of the Standalone Plays series (2013)
  14. Cover of The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, book 1 of the Passenger series (2022)
  15. Cover of Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, book 2 of the Passenger series (2022)
  1. 1
    The Orchard Keeper1965 · confirmed 3/4
    1965–
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  2. 2
    Outer Dark1968 · 242 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1968242
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    Child of God1973 · 197 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1973197
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    Suttree1979 · 480 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1979480
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    Blood Meridian1985 · 337 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1985337
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    All the Pretty HorsesBorder Trilogy #11992 · 302 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1992302
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    The StonemasonStandalone Plays #11994 · 133 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1994133
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    The CrossingBorder Trilogy #21994 · 432 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1994432
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Gardener's SonStandalone Plays #21996 · 93 pages · confirmed 3/4
    199693
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    Cities of the PlainBorder Trilogy #31998 · 291 pages · confirmed 3/4
    1998291
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    No Country for Old Men2005 · 309 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2005309
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    The Sunset LimitedStandalone Plays #32006 · 143 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2006143
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    The Road2006 · 287 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2006287
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    The CounselorStandalone Plays #42013 · confirmed 3/4
    2013–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    The PassengerPassenger #12022 · 383 pages · confirmed 3/4
    2022383
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    Stella MarisPassenger #22022 · confirmed 3/4
    2022–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation2024 · confirmed 3/4
    2024–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Cormac McCarthy books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Standalone Plays

4 books

4 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Border Trilogy in order

3 books
  1. 1. All the Pretty Horses
  2. 2. The Crossing
  3. 3. Cities of the Plain

Passenger in order

2 books
  1. 1. The Passenger
  2. 2. Stella Maris

Standalone books

8 books

8 Cormac McCarthy titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Cormac McCarthy Books in Chronological Order

By publication date, the Cormac McCarthy books run from The Orchard Keeper (1965) to The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2024), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Cormac McCarthy in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.

Do you have to read Cormac McCarthy books in order?

You only need to read Cormac McCarthy books in order within the Passenger series, which holds 2 of the 17 Cormac McCarthy books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.

What order should you read Cormac McCarthy books in?

Read them in publication order, starting with The Orchard Keeper (1965), the earliest published title. After it come Outer Dark (1968), Child of God (1973), Suttree (1979) and Blood Meridian (1985); the numbered table above continues from there.

What is the newest Cormac McCarthy book?

The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2024) is the newest Cormac McCarthy book released so far.

Is there a new Cormac McCarthy book coming?

No next Cormac McCarthy book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Awards Cormac McCarthy has won

Wikidata records 7 awards and 2 nominations for Cormac McCarthy. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

  • Tähtivaeltaja Award2009Won
  • Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Novel2008Wonfor The Road
  • Pulitzer Prize for Fiction2007Wonfor The Road
  • James Tait Black Memorial Prize2006Wonfor The Road
  • National Book Award for Fiction1992Wonfor All the Pretty Horses
  • National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction1992Wonfor All the Pretty Horses
  • Lillian Smith Book Award1980Wonfor Suttree
  • Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign Novel2009Shortlistedfor The Road
  • Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel2007Shortlistedfor The Road

Cormac McCarthy at a glance

Died
Cormac McCarthy died in 2023, according to Wikidata.
After death
Books credited to Cormac McCarthy are still being published after Cormac McCarthy's death in 2023; the newest appeared in 2024.
Release pace
Cormac McCarthy books have appeared about one every 4 years on average.
Length
3,629 pages across the 13 of 17 books with a recorded length, a median of 291 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Cormac McCarthy books, 5 of 17, were published in the 1990s.

What the Cormac McCarthy books are about

16 of the 17 Cormac McCarthy books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: psychological fiction is tagged on 5 of 16. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.