The Road

By: Cormac McCarthy

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins

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.

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

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)

Great book

Very good book, I just wish someone told me how depressing it would be through out the entire book.

Awesome

What a great story. Tom S. was a perfect choice for narrator. This is a classic.

A tale of fatherly love

This book affected me more than any other fiction book has. It moved me. It taught me how much a father and son may love each other, when that was something foreign to me as I did not have that growing up. It gave me hope as to how I can love my own son. It inspires me to do whatever it takes to ensure that my son feels loved, whatever he may be going through.

Too good to listen to while distracted

What did you love best about The Road?

Although it was set in a post-apocalyptic world, it resonated with truth. Everything about the setting felt real – it didn't feel like science fiction; it felt like fiction.

What about Tom Stechschulte’s performance did you like?

The audio performance added so much to the dialog of the book. The narrator was able to give the conversations between father and son much more meaning than I might have given them had I been reading (rather than listening to) the book.

Any additional comments?

If you are the kind of person that listens to audio books while driving and working out like I do, you might want to save The Road. I felt like it was such a good book, and I wasn't truly able to focus on it while doing those other activities. On the other hand, the audio version is great, so if you are able to focus well while listening or if you have a long solo road trip ahead of you, this would make a great listen!

my favorite genre

What made the experience of listening to The Road the most enjoyable?

The narrator was very good. He kept the tone of the book: dark, undramatic even in dramatic circumstances whch suited the whole world as it was in the book: grey, unflinching, plodding. I have listened to it two times. Apocolyptic stoires are my favorites. Stephen King's The Stand for example. If any readers have any other suggestions I would welcome them.

Amazing

Only book that has moved me to tears. Only anything, really. And you get the feeling that the boy and his father are the average, not the rare, which hammers home every person is just that- a person.

Well Narrated, but the story lacked substance.

While Cormac McCarthy did a pretty good job setting up an atmosphere, and the dialogue always felt natural and almost unpolished, his actual story was just boring. If you’re looking for a good bedtime book, or something easy to sit through and not pay much attention to, this is great. But if you’re looking for an engaging/complex story, read something else. There are really only 3-4 times in the whole book where something major happens, and the rest of the time it’s just “it’s dark. The boy is cold. The man is cold too. They’re very hungry...” I held out hoping that the end would change my opinion on the lackluster story, but it didn’t. That’s really all I’ve got to say about it.

New dads: warning, find a place to cry

Let me preface by mentioning I am a new father during the zombie apocalypse (aka, Covid-19). My son was born in early June 2020, and I had to drive my wife through downtown, where people were rioting and tear gas was being lobbed. That's my experience so far. Fast forward a few months - and my son falls asleep while I rock and sing to him in our glider - I have ADHD, so I NEED to have something else to do in the dark; audiobooks have been a Godsend. But this book made me weep, literally. No spoilers, but there was a point in the book where, while rocking my baby boy, I stopped rocking and held him as tight as I dared and whispered to him that I would always protect him, that I loved him, and I will never leave him or his mom. I have never had an emotional reaction like that to a book - maybe it was a combination of lack of sleep, fear of the future, the zombie apocalypse, and general new dad anxiety, but this book affected me like nothing else I've ever read. It's terrifying and beautiful.

It is dark but makes now look bright

In these days of worry and isolation I need a book in my ear as I try to sleep. This may seem to have been an odd book for distraction but when I wake I realize life could be much more dire. Our world is still full of light and hope.
Profound experience

Heavy, very Heavy

So it's a shorter story but very heavy. not a happy go lucky story. Very real and raw. I enjoyed it enough but probably won't be a repeat listen