The Passenger

De: Cormac McCarthy

Narrado por: MacLeod Andrews, Julia Whelan

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.

Remarkable

As with previous McCarthy novels, The Passenger purports themes that are as unsettling as they are compelling. In his most dialogue-driven novel. McCarthy deals with matters of life and death…but mostly death. This book will help you understand that life is suffering. It will satisfy the curious mind. This book can make you reread Cant, explore physics and give you a different opinion on the Kennedy assassination.

It is a masterpiece.

A Work of Art

A very deep and beautiful story. A story that could only be written by a mature soul who has lived life as an artist and spiritual seeker and an American . I loved this book. It was very meaningful to me on so many levels. As so many of his books are wonderful, this one was my favorite.

The good ones just get a pass sometimes

I guess if you’re Cormac McCarthy, or any other famous writer, you sometimes get carte blanche acceptance of your work, no matter what it is that you turn out. This book is a reflection of that proposition. it’s called the passenger but we never do find out who the passenger is that is unaccounted for in a downed airplane accident in the Gulf of Mexico. But trust me when I tell you that before it is over you will hear everything else that happened to be on the author‘s mind for over 13 hours. let’s just call it the random musings of an otherwise notable author. the main character Robert Western is as good a protagonist as you’ll find anywhere. the kind that no matter what happens he is going to live to tell about it.. From what I can gather, his father worked on the Manhattan project, and he had kind of a lunatic sister, who the book bounces back and forth with between Westerns, real world, and the sisters imagined world.. We meet a kaleidoscope of colorfull characters who will hold your attention and occasionally make you laugh until you cry with their wit and wisdom, and sometimes just their living conditions. All this while you try to make heads or tails of where the story is headed, thinking that surely we are going to get back on track and find out who the mysterious passenger really is. Alas sports fans that never happens. along the way, though there is some very witty dialogue, memorable clichés, whether from his own imagination or borrowed from others and it’s not an all together. bad story. The narration which has been panned in other reviews I found to be pretty good. I thought it fit the laconic ideals of character and demeanor of the main character to a T.

Joe Lilley

Truly a masterpiece

I fear these two books are the last we will hear from Cormac McCarthy. But if so, it is a perfect swan song. Truly a masterpiece.

5 (hundred) Stars!

The Passenger is a book absolutely made for the audiobook format. Julia Whelan's and MacLeod Andrews' performances are some of the best I've ever heard in all my hours (zillions!) of listening to audiobooks.
It took me a couple of hours to get into the story as it's unlike any book I've experienced but just roll with it. Cormac McCarthy's detailed characters come to life surrounded by magnificent prose.
The Passenger is one wild ride and well worth your Audible credit.
I must recommend listening to Stella Maris directly after finishing The Passenger.