The Road

Description

By (author) McCarthy, Cormac

Short /annotation:
Civilization destroyed, this is the story of a father and son as they journey across a post-apocalyptic America. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.

:

One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21^st Century

A post-apocalyptic classic set in a burned-out America, a father and his young son walk under a darkened sky, heading slowly for the coast. They have no idea what, if anything, awaits them there. The Road is a masterpiece of American fiction from Cormac McCarthy.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

The landscape is destroyed. Nothing moves save the ash on the wind. Cruel, lawless men stalk the roadside, lying in wait. Attempting to survive in this brave new world, the young boy and his protector have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves. They must keep walking.

In this unflinching study of the best and worst of humankind, Cormac McCarthy boldly divines a future without hope, but one in which, miraculously, this young family may yet find tenderness.

”The Road made me cry for days” – Emma Donoghue, author of Room and Haven

”[T]he most important environmental book ever written” – George Monbiot, author of Feral and Regenesis

With an introduction from John Banville, author of The Sea.

Adapted into a critically-acclaimed film starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Review quote:
So good that it will devour you. It is incandescent

Review quote:
[The Road,] heartbreaking and haunting, has an overbearing, almost suffocating atmosphere . . . you cannot forget you’ve read it

Review quote:
McCarthy’s novel was one of the triggers for my writing Room; I wanted to see what a mother-child modern myth would look like, because his father-child one was so powerful

Review quote:
The first great masterpiece of the globally warmed generation. Here is an American classic which, at a stroke, makes McCarthy a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Review quote:
You will read on, absolutely convinced, thrilled, mesmerized. All the modern novel can do is done here

Review quote:
McCarthy conjures from this pitiless flight the miracle of unswerving humanity. Gripping beyond belief

Review quote:
One of the most shocking and harrowing but ultimately redemptive books I have read. It is an intensely intimate story. It is also a warning

Review quote:
A masterpiece that will soon be considered a classic

Biographical note:
Cormac McCarthy was the author of many acclaimed novels, including Blood Meridian, Child of God and The Passenger. Among his honours are the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 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. McCarthy died in 2023 in Santa Fe, NM at the age of 89.

Promotional headline:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, The Road tells the story of a father and son as they journey across a post-apocalyptic landscape that has destroyed most of civilization.