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Cormac McCarthy's Life in Books

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

Suttree

Cormac moved to Texas in the late 1970s and published his fourth novel, Suttree, in 1979. It is a book that had occupied his writing life on and off for 20 years.

Suttree is the story of Cornelius Suttree, who has forsaken a life of privilege to live in a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee River near Knoxville. Remaining on the margins of the outcast community there—a brilliantly imagined collection of eccentrics, criminals and squatters—he rises above the physical and human squalor with detachment, humor and dignity.