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)

I just had to sit quietly when I finished.

wonderful performance by the narrator. This book made me feel so melancholy. such a feeling of dystopian dread. Absolutely a must read!!!

The Narrator is surprisingly effective

I really wanted to listen to this book but was a little skeptical of the single narrator being able to portray The Man and The Child. He is perfect. he gives the performance exactly what it needs. Its a very emotionally taxing story but well worth a listen. There's deep subtext here but what I came away with most is that this is a book about stewardship of the next generation. Our collective responsibility to carry the fire. And to believe in hope where none should exist at all.

Very Good

Great book would recommend to everyone. Read it twice and it’s still very good on the re-read.

A bit repetitive but i enjoyed it

The audiobook did completely skip a page near the end and its very noticable, besides that i enjoyed the performance

Beautiful

Loved this book. The human experience and the natural fight for life is so well written.

Excellent

Saw the movie a million years ago and thought hmm I bet the book would be good. Holy fucking shit. Excellent man. Five fucking stars!!

Not your standard run of the mill post apocalyptic story

Touching, heartfelt and sad. The author kept the action scenes to a minimum so we could focus on the relationship between the father and son.

Heartfelt

This Pulitzer prize winning story is a heartfelt and interesting story of a father and son struggling to survive and traveling and endless road following an apocalyptic event. I really enjoyed listening to the story.

I have listened to this audio book a few times.

I love this story. The performance is definitely top tier.
The story is slow on purpose. If you really think about what the author is saying, really take in what’s happening around the characters, it’s a really deep book. As a parent, I felt like I really resonated with the themes in the book. It’s hard being a parent, the world is scary, especially a post-apocalyptic world with cannibals. Give the book a listen, when you’re done, go check out the movie.

Good writing, but didn’t really go anywhere

The narration was quite good for the story. The story was very bleak and the narration really solidified that.

The writing was very good. Captivating and easy to grasp. The author definitely has a talent with spinning a story. It’s not too verbose, but still paints a great picture.

My only problem with the book is that it just felt like a small piece taken right out of the middle of a much larger story. There were lots of small events that happened throughout the story, but it just ended without explaining much of anything that was happening. You got a tiny bit of backstory from the characters, but I didn’t catch any information on why there was an apocalypse.

This book gets a lot of praise and recommendations, and it wasn’t a bad story. It just ended without much purpose.