All the Pretty Horses cover art

All the Pretty Horses

The Border Trilogy, Book 1

Preview
Free with 30-day trial
A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.

All the Pretty Horses

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Frank Muller
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

Confirm Purchase
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.
Cancel

About this listen

John Grady Cole is the last bewildered survivor of long generations of Texas ranchers. Finding himself cut off from the only life he has ever wanted, he sets out for Mexico with his friend, Lacey Rawlins.

Befriending a third boy on the way, they find a country beyond their imagining: barren and beautiful, rugged yet cruelly civilised.... A place where dreams are paid for in blood.

©1992 Cormac McCarthy (P)1992 Recorded Books Inc
Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Heartfelt Ranch
activate_mytile_page_redirect_t1

Critic Reviews

"One of the greatest American novels of this or any time." ( Guardian)
"A darkly shining work...executed with consummate skill and much subtlety - the effect is magnificent." ( Observer)
"An exhilarating, exceptional novel." ( Spectator)

What listeners say about All the Pretty Horses

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    152
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    160
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    132
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

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

Unique style of writing

Great adventure story with a unique style of writing. Subtly contrasted the two main characters in the book and not all at once.

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

Profound and poetic.

Cormac McCarthy writes with passion and uses language which is deeply poetic. This is a beautiful novel.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

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

Exquisite.

I devoured this book, loving every aspect of it. From the sumptous and generous writing to the excellent narration.

So much of the books themes, locals and history was totally alien to me, so it was an incredible and oft heart-rendering experience that I will treasure.

The moods and relationships and landscapes are masterfully echoed in the authors language and will be a solemn delight to any lover of good fiction, I reckon.

It should be noted that due attention is given to the equine world, and the relationships between human and horse are as deeply considered as any other relationship explored in the book. So, if you lilove horses and reading, this is a must!

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

Aesthetically beautiful, enrapturing

A beautifully written novel delivered very well. When someone writes as literally as McCarthy it needs, in my view, an American accent. I am dying to get to the second in this trilogy.

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

Exceptional, beautiful

I couldn’t recommend this book more. Exquisitely written, masterfully read. Harrowing, but impossible not to admire.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

All the Pretty Horses

McCarthy writes like an angel and the narrator’s voice captures perfectly the loneliness of the story, the gentle but complex nature of the protagonist and the savage landscape. John Ford would have done wonders with this book.

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

Breathtaking

It was amazing. What an adventure in Mexico for these two fellas, I'm still trying to catch my breath.

It makes my experience in Argentina with dysteria, tinea, thrush, those scabbs on my scalp, a fella getting stabbed and having to eat a horse seem like something that could happen at my nephew's next birthday party.

I could relate to the color descriptions of the landscapes, and about being questioned by officials as to the reason you're there as opposed to being in your own country where the money is so much better, I can see why that would seem suspicious.

I felt sorry for the ranch owner for putting that much trust in them that he had his own investigation done so he could prove their innocence just to be let down and find out they'd lied to him.

I liked the part when Alejandra would sneak over to his room at the stables and when they'd have sex he'd put his hand over her mouth so nobody could hear her and she'd bite his hand that hard it would draw blood, that's one of those rare instances of passion that aren't felt many times in a lifetime.

My favorite part was at the end when he got back to Texas and said he didn't know where his country was. Once you wander a bit and see some of the world it's truly hard to know where you belong as you end up with a little bit of everywhere you've been in you.

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

very nice

outstanding word play, McCarthy is a genius at creating landscapes while the story plot blew me away with its elegant twists and turns.

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
    4 out of 5 stars

Atmospheric

Beautiful granular story of a young man’ journey. Narrated perfectly. The author made his character only 16 years old which i found slightly odd and jarring. He and his friend seemed in their physical capabilities, emotional and cognitive development to be about 22 or 23 years old. Maybe in those days, they would have had that maturity at 16. Maybe the author is being deliberate about that and our times promote the delay of adulthood.

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

Outstanding

I don’t have the skill to write a review deserving of this book.
Extraordinary, heartbreaking, brutal and raw.
I am forever changed.

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

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.