NATIONAL BESTSELLERPULITZER PRIZE WINNER National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistA New York Times Notable BookOne of the Best Books of the YearThe Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington PostThe searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac … Post
The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Somewhat dark and depressing. McCarthy is without a doubt a wordsmith of the first order but he seem to try and prove it with every page he writes. After a while I found it distracting and thought it detracted from the pace of the story.
At this time, under current conditions it certainly made me think I imagine it is possible for the world to become prehistoric again.
Different from what I usually read. Eye-opening. Makes you think – “What if I…”
very dark. Needed a little more explanation fo the world situation, how we got there. I liked that it is very different, though not really Believable . discouraged my wife from reading.
I didn’t think it lived up to the hype that I heard about it prior to actually reading it.
A brilliant dystopian read told from the perspectives of a father and son. A father is trying desperately to protect his son in a world that has gone to hell. It is overrun by cannibals after fire has destroyed everything. There is no food, or water. All animals, fish, birds and plants have gone extinct. The son is believed to be some kind of savior. It captures their journey as they struggle to survive each day against the elements, people and starvation. The style of writing the author uses is particularly jarring. He also dehumanizes the characters by never once giving them a name but only referring to them by their genders. A great book to read.
A book that charts the geography of hope and the resilience of human relationships in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a tense and depressing story of a father trying to keep his son alive. It does give one pause as we begin to wonder what we would do in a similar situation. A good and very sad tale.
This dark survival tale is filled with love and hope in the midst of often cruel and hopeless circumstances.
Not for the feint of heart, but if you’re a fan of McCarthy, read this book–maybe in daylight.
Very enjoyable book. Mr. McCarthy’s writing style is unique and beautiful, painting a believable world where the relationship between the man and his boy becomes bigger than the journey they take.
This is an absolute must read for anyone, regardless of what genre they prefer.
Is redemption possible for a dead world? Plenty to think through with this book. A man and his son on the road to nowhere at the end of civilization.
The movie of the same name was very faithful to the book for a change, but this is a case where the writer’s great command of the English language really makes the difference.
It’s a depressing, apocalyptic, end of the world road trip. Everything is dreary and nihilistic. Which means, as a picture show, it’s slow paced and not essential. As a written work, it’s a charming and smooth read.
Ugh this book. It’s an amazingly haunting sad story. So worth the read, but I read this while pregnant 10 years ago and I still think about it on a regular basis. It’s stuck with me all those years. The way the author weaves this dismal world and the characters emotions is uncanny.
Cormac Mccarthy delivers an epic tale about the bond between a father and son. This novel is definitely worth reading!
The Road is a haunting view into what a post nuclear war America could be like. The characters face new terrifying challenges at every turn that really keep the reader hooked.
A must read bookI. I trudged along every footstep with them. While the engine was sad, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’ve taught this novel in my seminars for several years and it always knocks students off their feet, in the very best way. And knocks me, too! It challenges our entire view of the consumer culture we live in, a culture supported by the increasing threat of war and ecological collapse. But politics and criticism is only one aspect, and a rather secondary one, of the novel. It’s mostly about basic human values, love, trust, survival, our relation to the earth. The relationship between father and son, and some of the others that crop up, is at the heart of the novel. Reading this novel again and again, I see new things every time. I’m amazed each time at its minimalist complexity. McCarthy uses language in a potent, original way, in every sentence, to strip human life to its essence and reveal what we can’t see in our daily life.
this will always and forever be one of the books I hold close to my heart. beautifully tragic and haunting, yet the reader is left with goose-bumps and a sense of hope upon it’s closure.
This book is like a punch in the stomach. Elegant, scary, powerful, and tough, so tough. When I read the final page, the tears were just rolling down my cheeks.