The Crossing

Like many people my first contact with Cormac McCarthy was through The Road. After finishing that, I didn't feel I wanted to read any more for a while. I came back to McCarthy via The Crossing, and I've been completely blown away by the quality of his writing. No-one since William Golding has written more eloquently about the human condition. 

Billy Parham crosses the border and travels through Mexico three times. On each journey he meets some one who talks to him about the human condition. On his return to America at the end of the book Billy has lost everything.