1993 Cormac McCarthy novel set in the late 1940's about a teenager, John Grady Cole, who flees his home in Texas on horseback and heads south into Mexico in search of adventure and a chance to live as a cowboy. He is accompanied by a friend and another young drifter they encounter crossing the Rio Grande, and the three find work as cowboys on a ranch in mexico. John Grady falls in love with the daugher of the ranchowner, and the drifter is arrested and held by corrupt Mexican officials, then executed. Cole and his friend are also jailed, and must fight their way through prison until their release.

The novel is the first in the McCarthy's Border Trilogy.

Also a movie released in December, 2000 directed by Billy Bob Thornton and starring Matt Damon as the protagonist.