A startling encounter on a New York subway platform leads two strangers toa run-down tenement where a life or death decision must be made. In thatsmall apartment, 'Black' and 'White', as the two men are known, begin aconversation that leads each back through his own history mining theorigins of two diametrically opposing world views, they begin a dialecticredolent of
the best of Beckett. White is a professor whose seeminglyenviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair.Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the men though he isjust as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is todeny it. Their aim is no less than this: to discover the meaning of life.Deft, spare, and full of artful tension, The Sunset Limited is abeautifully crafted, consistently thought-provoking, and deeply intimatework by one of the most insightful writers of our time. 'The Sunset Limitedgrips from the very first page.' Financial Times 'The author at his best,meditating on life, suffering and religion' Shortlist 'It's remarkable thatCormac McCarthy could revive the antique genre of the philosophicaldialogue as convincingly as he does here. His prose bites.