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The Passenger

by Cormac McCarthy

A salvage dive opens onto larger mysteries

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A salvage dive opens onto larger mysteries

Set in 1980, the novel begins with salvage diver Bobby Western investigating a sunken aircraft off the Mississippi coast. The missing passenger and absent flight records place him near a conspiracy he does not understand, while his work and travels through the American South intersect with grief, family history, and questions of faith. The description also points to the shadow of his father’s role in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and to a troubled bond with his sister. Across its mystery and Southern settings, the book brings together science, morality, inherited guilt, and reflections on human consciousness.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction shaped by mystery and conspiracy.
  • Those drawn to stories set across the American South and involving salvage diving.
  • Readers interested in fiction exploring science, faith, family ties, and moral questions.

Themes

Mystery and conspiracyGrief and family historyScience and moralityFaith and human consciousness

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The first of a two-volume masterpiece, The Passenger series, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road- The story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Blends the rowdy humor of some of McCarthy's early novels with the parched tone of his more apocalyptic later work." --The New York Times

Stella Maris, the second volume in The Passenger series, is available now.


1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western zips the jacket of his wet suit and plunges from the Coast Guard tender into darkness. His dive light illuminates the sunken jet, nine bodies still buckled in their seats, hair floating, eyes devoid of speculation. Missing from the crash site are the pilot's flight bag, the plane's black box, and the tenth passenger. But how? A collateral witness to machinations that can only bring him harm, Western is shadowed in body and spirit--by men with badges; by the ghost of his father, inventor of the bomb that melted glass and flesh in Hiroshima; and by his sister, the love and ruin of his soul.

Traversing the American South, from the garrulous barrooms of New Orleans to an abandoned oil rig off the Florida coast, The Passenger is a breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.
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