In this magnificent new novel, the National Book Award-winning author of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing fashions a darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier.  

The setting is New Mexico in 1952, where John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are working as ranch hands. To the North lie the proving grounds of Alamogordo; to the South, the twin cities of El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. Their life is made up of trail drives and horse auctions and stories told by campfire light. It is a life that is about to change forever, and John Grady and Billy both know it.

The catalyst for that change appears in the form of a beautiful, ill-starred Mexican prostitute.  When John Grady falls in love, Billy agrees--against his better judgment--to help him rescue the girl from her suavely brutal pimp. The ensuing events resonate with the violence and inevitability of classic tragedy.   Hauntingly beautiful, filled with sorrow, humor and awe, Cities of the Plain is a genuine American epic.

科马克-麦卡锡，生于1933年，50年代初在田纳西大学研习文学，60年代起专门从事文学、特别是小说的创作，1985年以《血色的子午线》一书崭露头角。90年先后出版了"边境三部曲"的《骏马》、《穿越》、《平原上的城市》，奠定了他作为当代美国西部文学大师的地位，被誉为"当代在世的最伟大的美国作家之一"。