Outer Dark

Cormac McCarthy's 1968 novel (his second) begins with the birth of a child to Rinthy Holme--a baby boy, who is taken off to the woods and left to die by Culla, Rinthy's brother--who is also the baby's father. Believing her son to be alive, Rinthy undertakes a quest to find him, and Culla begins to roam the Appalachian countryside on a mysterious quest of his own. He is menaced by three strangers--symbols perhaps of Culla's guilt--who commit heinous crimes for which Culla is blamed. McCarthy's dark tale has been compared to the kind of harsh folk fables that have traditionally been part of mountain culture.