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The Road

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The Road

By: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
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About this listen

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2007


An Oprah Winfrey Book Club Selection

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.

Click here to see all the titles in our Radio & TV Book Clubs collection.©2006 M-71, Ltd. (P)2006 Recorded Books LLC
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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)
"...For all the harrowing hopelessness, the bond between father and son shines through."( The Guardian)

What listeners say about The Road

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    3 out of 5 stars

hmmmm

bit of a strange ending, didn't live up to the hype also didn't have enough action for me

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Harsh but very good

Post apocalyptic thriller. A father and his son fight to thrive in a hopeless world

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Slow burner, though gripping throughout

Great listen on the tube....powerfully woven tale on a father son partnership amidst a post apocalyptic event

Recommended for anyone looking for a powerful read, slow but builds to grip the reader!!

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amazing

the road is one of those books I read time and time again and I still find something new to love each time. it is both thought provoking and heartbreaking. I must've read this at least 20 times and listened about as many times. Could not recommend it enough. Probably my favourite book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

When humanity has disappeared, how do we remain human? A beautiful, unforgetable and moving book about the power of love. It questions everything, and maybe provides no answers. Even if you are going to see the movie, or have already seen it, as I had, still listen to the book, it enhances the experience. Beautifully read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A journey well worth taking...

This is exaclty the sort of relentlessly grim and harrowing book I avoid...usually. I spent the first half in a mixed state of gut knotted anxiety and anticipation as the pair faced ever more menacing and macabre happenings. The book was so beautifuuly written and plausibly narrated that it became utterly compelling. Even in the devasted post apocalyptic world there is some hope to be found in transcendance and just carrying on...very moving and very scarey.

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Great book, great narration

Really great but dark story. Loved the Narrator bringing the man and boy's conversations to life.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Just a small window on a small time of life

What I appreciated was not having all the information about the universe where the story is, but enough to follow the adventures of the father and his son. I loved how the father's emotions were written (and interpreted by the narrator), as well as his relationship to his son. The psychological aspect of the book pleased me.

By cons, I found the end a little too out of a magic hat. Too bad, I would have preferred a more tragic end, or a little less miraculous.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Stark and powerful

A stripped to the bone tale of a father's love for his son set in a bleak and barren post apocalyptic world.

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AMAZING

Loved it from start to finish,would recommend to anyone interested in character driven stories,its a very bleak but heart warming at the same time and made me cry,god damn beautiful book 10 out 10 for me,love this writer

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