The Road

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2007

America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst this destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still, they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world of utter devastation.

Bleak but brilliant, with glimmers of hope and humor, The Road is a stunning allegory and perhaps Cormac McCarthy's finest novel to date. This remarkable departure from his previous works has been hailed by Kirkus Reviews as a "novel of horrific beauty, where death is the only truth".

McCarthy, a New York Times best-selling author, is a past recipient of the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. He is widely considered one of America's greatest writers.

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Critic reviews

"McCarthy's prose retains its ability to seduce...and there are nods to the gentler aspects of the human spirit." (The New Yorker)
"One of McCarthy's best novels, probably his most moving and perhaps his most personal...Every moment of The Road is rich with dilemmas that are as shattering as they are unspoken...McCarthy is so accomplished that the reader senses the mysterious and intuitive changes between father and son that can't be articulated, let alone dramatized...Both lyric and savage, both desperate and transcendent, although transcendence is singed around the edges...Tag McCarthy one of the four or five great American novelists of his generation." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Take the Road

The road literally is a dead end, but the lessons it leaves wind on forever.

Required

Great read from start to finish. Love where cormac left us at the end of the road

Heartbreaking but so good!

This is well worth your time. Not an easy story to listen to. It’s a love story about a father and son who have immense faith and hope in the bleakest of circumstances. Very bleak but also beautiful.

Made me cry!!!

Hearth warming written. It’s worth all the time to listen!!! Yes, I’ll recommended this to anyone I know!!

Narrator Reads SLOW

Holy crap this guy reads slow. Way too slow. Made the story longer than it should’ve been. Made the book less interesting than what I’ve heard. Kind of bummed about that. What was supposed to be a promising book turned into a “meh” book. Not only that but either the version of the book I read along with is a different copy or they had a different copy. The narrator added words, missed words, missed sentences, and even skipped a whole page!!! If I could give zero stars to the narrator I would. Yikes.

Starts nowhere finishes nowhere

This story kept me captivated from start to finish. I wanted to know more but it was left to my imagination. Well narrated and a good listen.

Exceptionally sad. Don’t read too far into it.

Very good and emotional book. If you look too far for a deeper meaning or an extravagant climax you’ll be disappointed. The books is what it is and no more than that m.

Something you will not soon forget

Left my heart hurting it heavy. But it is something that will stay with me for a very long time. The writing is beautiful. There really is no.plot Just the emotions during a span of time

Great story and better with audio!

Make sure that you time the end of the book or you may find yourself crying in the middle of the park creating an awkward experience for your fellow runners.
Tom Stechschulte delivers this story in the best possible way!

Great

I loved the simplicity of the dialog and relationship between The Man and his son while surrounded by endless danger and uncertainty. This book is all about the characters and how they relate to each other and to their world. I love character-driven stories.