McCarthy, Cormac "The Road"

McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006

I am a fan of dystopian novels. So, when my online book club suggested this one, I was all for it.

There are mainly only two people in this book, a father and his son. Most of the world has been eliminated, we don't know exactly why but it doesn't matter. What's important is the way people react. Nothing grows anymore, so people have to eat what's still available. How would you react in such a situation? That's the big question and we see all sorts of different people acting in all sorts of different ways.

This story is scary because we can all imagine an apocalypse and what earth would look like afterwards. And what is going to happen to those who are "lucky" enough to survive.

If you are interested in this topic, the book is fabulous, impressive, grand. Also a great book about the bond between a father and his son and what parents are prepared to do for their children.

My only criticism would be the author's weird spelling of "dont".

We discussed this book in our international online book club in January 2020.

From the back cover:

"The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food - and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, 'each the other's world entire,' are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

Cormac McCarthy received the Pulitzer Prize for "The Road" in 2007.