The Latest Breaking News from Cormac McCarthy

The US novelist shaped the modern idea of the post-apocalypse. Without him, games such as The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption would not be the same

The film-maker, who is also set to adapt Blood Meridian, reflects on his friendship with the late author, ‘a monumental artistic force’

The novelist Cormac McCarthy was suspicious of punctuation, profoundly interested in violence, respected skill and physical labour, and loved the richness of the English language. He was particularly fond of short, declarative sentences and the word “and”.

Endings, extinctions, last things preoccupied Cormac McCarthy from the start to the recent close of his 60-year career as a writer of fiction and, occasionally, drama for stage or screen. His first novel, The Orchard Keeper (1965), ends with the word “dust”. His final novel, Stella Maris (2022), allows only…