Cities of the Red Night is a novel by American author William S. Burroughs. It is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands, and was first published in 1981. It was his first full-length novel since The Wild Boys a decade earlier. The plot revolves around a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Mission. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a sexual ritual. The cities of the title... mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco. The plot follows a nonlinear course through time and space. It imagines an alternate history in which Captain James Mission's Libertatia lives on. His way of life is based on The Articles, a general freedom to live as one chooses, without prejudice. The novel is narrated from two different standpoints; one set in the 18th century which follows a group of pirate boys led by Noah Blake, who land in Panama to liberate it.
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