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The Road cover art

The Road

Written by: Cormac McCarthy
Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
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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.

©2006 M-71, Ltd. (P)2006 Recorded Books LLC

What the critics say

"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)

What listeners say about The Road

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Couldn't stop listening until the end. Creates an atmosphere that I was lost inside.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Jen
  • 2020-09-07

Great performance, and vocabulary

This book was a great boys' post-apocalyptic story with its lack of women (except in memory with her shirt taut across her breasts), men being men, and people generally not getting along. The writing was great with its description and expansive vocabulary, but too unbelievable for me due to the author's gender biases and misperceptions.

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

Good story. Excellent narration.

Excellent narration! Story is depressing and only mildly exciting but short enough. Good atmosphere portrayed. Unique dialog / writing style. Works better as a audiobook than reading it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • acr
  • 2023-11-25

Good story very close to movie

I liked that it is good, and is well produced with no audio mistakes so common to audiobooks.

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

Dark but not unbearable, very real.

Never listened to anything like this. Was worried it was going to be to sad for me, but even though it is very said, it still uplifts you in odd ways.

Narrator-11 out of 10

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4 people found this helpful

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

oh ma heart

beautifully written, beautifully read. elegance in the pain. captures something that cannot be described with normal words. An ending that rivals all great endings and to me came out on top.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

I read this book in highschool and first getting audible this was my first choice always a great read!

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

Exceptional story

Beautiful story. Narrator was not bad, but I wish he didn't speak through clenched teeth when the father is angry and speaking to the boy. The anger seemed far too aggressive for the storyline.

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

Not bad

I wish for more input as to what had happened to the earth rather than just the setting of an apocalypse with no wildlife/vegetation/no food etc;

Found the boy to be quite insufferable at times. Annoying and contradictory.

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

Masterpiece, apparently misunderstood by many.

If you’re looking at some of these reviews that call this book “boring, dreadful, pointless” and other derogatory terms, rest assured that those people completely missed the ever-loving point of this book.

It’s a slice of a father and son’s life, at the end of the world.

Harrowing, touching, terrifying, all without a single name being given.

McCarthy’s prose is godlike.

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