No Country for Old Men

Steven Darlington widowed and with his sons in the Antipodes, is feeling rather stuck in a rut in his West Country town. Trawling the internet he finds Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium , the words of which seem to strike a chord. Further meandering on the internet brings up someone he had known fifty years earlier in the northern city of Cleadonbridge, where he was a student. A reunion of the fiftieth anniversary of his group’s graduation is planned for the following year, but Steven decides to visit the city earlier. Events come crowding in; he imagines that he can build a new life in Cleadonbridge and that he can help to reinvigorate the Anglo-Catholic church he attended. However, all comes to naught and he is forced to accept that, in the words of the poem, Cleadonbridge is indeed No Country For Old Men . Part of the novel describes the reunion and there is a tantalising ending.