The Road: Pulitzer Prize Winner

Cormac McCarthy

Mar 2007 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

Set in the post-apocalyptic world, the story of "The Raod" takes us on a journey with a father and a son who are trying to survive and find a place more suitable for life. As the novel unfolds, we follow them through an extremely bleak and desolate landscape of devastated and destroyed America. The landscape is sparsely populated with other human characters, most of whom are dangerous and a threat. The food supplies are scarce, and the characters are constantly on a verge of starvation. The nature of the apocalypse is never spelled out, and in many respects is not consequential for the main thrust of the story. The main focus of the narrative is the personal story between the father and the son, and the lengths to which the former is willing to go for the sake of the latter. It is a gripping and haunting tale, probably with the most depressing overall atmosphere of any work of fiction out there. And yet, it is extremely hard to put the novel down, and given enough time it could conceivably be read in a single sitting. After having finished it, the characters and images have stayed with me for weeks. Which brings me to the following point: if you are squeamish and easily frightened, this may not be the best book for you. Before reading this book, I was only acquainted with Cormac McCarthy's works through their movie adaptation. However, this book left such an impression on me that now I want to go back and read his other novels. I also cannot wait to see the upcoming movie adaptation of this book. This is a true literary masterpiece and an absolute must-read.

This book took me totally by surprise. I was not a Cormac McCarthy reader before this -- he has been called the "finest living writer" of our time, and, if this magnificent offering is any indication, he well might be. I plan to spend more tme with his stuff in the years ahead. His style fascinates: a compelling blend of transgressive punctuation, Hemingwayesque leanness and poetically evocative prose. Part sci-fi, part horror, The Road’s primary selling point is the relational drama between its taciturn main character and his boy. As father of three sons, I was more than moved -- overwhelmed actually --by the pair's interaction, set against their burnt out world. An incident, for instance, featuring the duo and a ransacked soda machine is painfully simple, heartbreakingly beautiful. I think about it now and am struck dumb with emotion. I cry pretty easily when watching a poignant movie; not so much with my nose in a book. But I was sobbing so sputteringly at The Road’s conclusion, I had trouble finishing its final few pages. When I closed the book, I had to go find my adolescent son and just hold him. This novel changed me; it is a treasure I will long remember and ponder.

There are few books that are truly and profoundly stirring and gripping. The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy is such a book. The Road is about the conditions for humanity in a destroyed and ravaged world. Its highest quality is not its darkness, it is the hope and the faith that it proclaims. Against nihilistic barbaric violence and the mere question of survival, it sets the quality of keeping the fire of love burning. This fire is exemplified in the relation between the father and the son, who are the protagonists of the book. The father is the die hard survivor who does whatever it takes to protect his son. The son is the apologist who always sides with the weak and asks critical questions to the father. The son is a Christ like figure. They keep the fire mutually burning within each other. The book is very simple in its outline. The father and the son are traveling towards the sea and the south. They are doing this as a necessity for survival. Throughout this journey they are confronted with the deepest questions and the most stirring emotions of human existence. McCarthy manages to keep the reader in suspense throughout the book by using a rough cut economical poetical language, and by being close to emotions. He has also a great eye for details and an ear for silence. I would say that the book is truly but unconventionally religious, describing both the wordless rage towards a hidden god, and the total dependence on divine providence, which is, at the end, surrender to the love of God.

About the author

The novels of the American writer, CORMAC McCARTHY, have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men—the latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture. He died in 2023.