Try free for 30 days

Preview
  • Cities of the Plain

  • Border Trilogy, Book 3
  • By: Cormac McCarthy
  • Narrated by: Frank Muller
  • Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (36 ratings)

1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Cities of the Plain

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Frank Muller
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Publisher's Summary

Two men marked by the boyhood adventures of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing now stand together to confront a country changing beyond recognition.

In the fall of 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are cowboys on a New Mexico ranch, encroached upon from the north by the military. On the southern horizon are the mountains of Mexico, where one of the men is drawn incessantly in this story of friendships and passion to a love as dangerous as it is inevitable.

©1998 Cormac McCarthy (P)1998 Recorded Books Inc

Critic Reviews

"This haunting deeply felt novel completes one of the literary masterworks of the 1990s." ( Daily Telegraph)
"McCarthy makes the sweeping plains a miracle." ( Scotsman)
"Like the Western settings he captures to perfection, his work is both heart-wrenchingly beautiful and uncompromisingly brutal." ( The Express)

What listeners say about Cities of the Plain

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    18
  • 4 Stars
    10
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

Incredible trilogy. This will be one I come back to often, i can tell. Perhaps I’ll understand more of the Spanish then but you can extrapolate most of it when it does occurs.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A timeless classic

Yet again Cormac McCarthy weaves a beautiful narrative from the simple lives of these characters. "Cities of the Plain" unites the two central protagonists of "All the Pretty Horses" and "The Crossing" and tells a story of sympathy and pathos which resonates and stays with the reader. You will fall in love with Billy and John. It is saddening to leave them here. But their profound impact will remain for some time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Wonderful, but spare me the soliloquies

Some of the writing in the trilogy (of which this is the last book) was so powerful it actually made me cry, which is something that I can't recall happening before with any novel. At times you are right there in the landscape.

I can tell I'm really shallow though, because what did leave me cold were the very long philosophical or allegorical speeches delivered by various Mexicans that pop up from time to time. Those teenage heroes of the books exhibited much more patience than grey haired me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A classic but I didn’t love it.

I was hoping for the violence promised that would come near to equaling Blood Meridian, but it wasn’t even close☹️

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.