Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Mesmerising... The best novel I read last year was McCarthy's No County for Old Men. I shall be astonished if this year I read anything better than The Road. --Mail on Sunday

Guardian
'Stunning...This is a shocking and brilliant work, at once
terribly pertinent and impressively universal.'

Mail on Sunday
`Mesmerising... The best novel I read last year was McCarthy's No County
for Old Men. I shall be astonished if this year I read anything better than
The Road.'

Customer Reviews

Borrow it from a library, if you must read it
I am immensely puzzled by McCarthy's fame. I keep thinking I should love his books, but I just don't. People I admire and whose opinions I trust urge his books on me and I conclude that these people must be nuts. I managed to read All the Pretty Horses. Goodness, what a waste of time. I read about ten pages of No COuntry for Old Men, hoping desperately that it would grip me. No luck.

So, when I read the first few pages of The Road and instantly felt the kind of exhilaration I wanted to get from his other books, I bought it. Should have saved some cash and visited the local library. Once you get the gist of the narrative framework (post-apocalyptic, father and son trying to reach safety, bad guys everywhere), that's it. It is left to Mr. McCarthy to fill in the graphic details, tick the boxes that will make people feel a bit queezy, and then end the story -- with possibly the most schmaltz you can imagine. I won't spoil it, but it seems clear to me that the author had no idea how to wrap up a story that was utterly bereft of hope (there is a way: be more European about it and don't shy away from the abyss).

Unlike some people, I did not find myself repelled by the bits that are graphic or by the apparent amorality of the tale (in fact, those are the things that made it too samey for my liking). If you are sensitive to such things, definitely do not read this book. You will not feel psychologically or emotionally enriched.

On the positive side, the book is written in a brisk style and a rainy Sunday should be all the time you need to read it. If you buy a copy, you can donate it to a charity shop when you're finished. I can't see this on anyone's list of books to read again and again.

Definitive. Courageous. Emotionally draining. First classic of the 21st Century
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RXNN8LTJA1KD0 A searing tale of a possible future for all. Relentless, emotionally challenging, genre defying and both life affirming and changing. If ever your sense of the presence or absence of God is going to be challenged in a book- this is it. I felt as if I had faced up to my own worst nightmare and came out the other end with a ray of hope still intact.

This stands alone......
Alan Warner said it best; "All the modern can do is done here." 'The Road' is a mesmerising novel, full of delicate but powerful prose, with pure poetry flecked within its simple dialogue and basic narrative. Whilst many contemporary novels are often self-indulgent and weighed down by pretentiousness, 'The Road' reduces everything to essentials, focusing on the relationship between a father and his son in a demanding situation with incredibly moving consequences. I simply haven't read a book that's affected me so much for years; heartwarming yet devastating, 'The Road' will have you hooked, and you'll still be thinking about it long after you've turned the last page.