The Road - Cormac McCarthy

The Road

By Cormac McCarthy

  • Release Date: 2006-09-26
  • Genre: Literary
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 2,991 Ratings

Description

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). From the bestselling author of The Passenger

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.

Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.

Reviews

  • Humanity Lives

    5
    By Kitty#27
    Amazing book. It’s hopeful but realistic. Life will always find a way!
  • 10/10

    5
    By kailyn michelle davis
    I love it . It was so good and it was so productive to me and i feel so good and so yea and it made me feel so uh like i made me some hot cocoa and a donut with it😂😂so yea
  • Excellent, Tense, Depressing, Foretelling…

    5
    By urjimbo
    A unique writing style initially confusing but quickly intimate and necessary. I hovered over the characters as they made their way down The Road.
  • Touching

    5
    By Ed Ainsly
    It is hard to think that I will ever forget this book. It is dark and sad. Sometimes poetic and sometimes scary. The imagery is hard to forget.
  • Read this book

    5
    By musician real
    A very moving, beautifully written story about love and perseverance.
  • Well penned

    3
    By austinyeargan
    Killer style. A bit gloomy tho. Goes on too long same thing over and over. Like life.
  • Great writing

    5
    By EDM-lover-22
    Beautiful minimalist writing. I love the lyrical attributes and rhythm you feel while reading The Road. I drew a lot of inspiration from McCarthy in my own writing
  • Excellent

    5
    By livikitty08
    Likely outcome eventually
  • GCBSF: Good Cataclysm. Baby-Sitting Father!

    5
    By lovefromjack
    Dear Cormac – Wow. The writing in this is very good. I worry about you. Because if this story was inside of you, it must be pretty dark in there. How are you? We loved the babysitting in this scintillating novel – I particularly loved the scene where the man taught the boy to shoot a flair gun. This novel and the Ann M. Martin classic “BSC in the USA” speak to each other across the void. Both are about road trips, babysitting, and flawed father figures. Cormac - Quick question: Is this our actual future? By which we mean, is the heat death of the universe going to kill everyone we’ve known (and the humanity and warmth inside us) and snuff out every light we’ve ever turned our faces to in hope as the universe succumbs to entropy and everything descends into darkness? And finally, was it jorts when they find the pants and cut them? – Jack Shepherd and Tanner Greenring (P.S. We loved this one)
  • VERY GOOD

    3
    By Prophet Amos
    The book had a good feel to it, at times quite depressing. I enjoyed the relationship between the father and his son. I was informed by an Apple Representative that McCarthy choose to keep contraction errors, which resulted in bastardizing the English language, and McCarthy passing poor grammar on to young impressionable minds. I gave it an OK rating due to the intentional errors by McCarthy.