
Lonesome Dove
American novelist, 1936–2021. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986.
Lonesome Dove is a 1985 novel by Larry McMurtry. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986.
On 3 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
The Novel Index earns a small commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our rankings. More about how we earn.
At a glance
- Author
- Larry McMurtry
- First published
- 1985
- Length
- 880 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 1986
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Adventure
Is Lonesome Dove worth reading?
3 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 1986) | Winner | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 52 | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of Lonesome Dove
The edition we link to is the Picador paperback (2025), 880 pages.
- Publisher
- Picador (paperback, 2025)
- Pages
- 880
- ISBN
- 9781529099942
How critics, prizes and readers rate Lonesome Dove
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 50% of the points available on prize lists, against 31% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 0% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Lonesome Dove
If you liked Lonesome Dove, try The Lord of the Rings, Dune or Noughts & Crosses.



