I had high hopes for this book! I do find Cormac McCarthy has his own style of writing and it does take me a couple of chapters to drop into it. While i didn’t hate the story, I did find it slow and repetitive. Every time the book seemed to get interesting or something happened it didn’t last long and soon returned to being slow. I maybe in the minority but while I didn’t hate the book I didn’t love it either. I do understand it’s supposed to be a bleak apocalyptic story and a journey of survival but I did find myself getting bored in parts of the book. I will most certainly still pick up another Cormac McCarthy book, as again once I got used to his style I loved Child Of God.

I loved this Pulitzer prize winning novel. It is set in post apocalyptic America. You don't ever really discover exactly what has happened, you are thrown straight into the story of the boy and his Papa who are walking 'the road' from the North towards the South to escape the cold. There aren't many people around, but they avoid people incase they are bad (and some of them definitely are). This is a story of survival in terrible circumstances where basic items such as food, clean water and medicines are hard to come by.

You very quickly become invested in the characters of the boy and his Papa, despite never learning their names. They journey on and the descriptive prose detailing their day to day existence is powerful and emotional. Highly recommended.

This book is being re-published as part of Picador's 50th anniversary in a series of the best contemporary literature. Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Pan MacMillan and net galley for the electronic copy

A wonderful ride through a post apocalyptic world where Cormac McCarthy uses words like poetry to draw you into the characters and surroundings.

Sad and bleak portrait of the end of the world as we know it. The indomitable spirit of survival and the innate goodness of the father which he was still trying to show to others was very touching. The ending left me with a sense of hope.
Thank you Picador and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to experience this book.

Bearing in mind this is a Pulitzer Prize winning book,I read it with anticipation. I didn't read any other reviews before hand as I didn't want The views of others to influence me,
Basically it's the story of aa man and his young son struggling to survive in a distopian world after an event that has turned much of America into a burned out, ash covered desert-like place. They are making their way South to avoid another harsh Winter, and they carry all their belongings in two backpacks and a shopping trolley.
Their desperation is shown in one incident wher they come across an abandoned Garage/filling station and decant the dregs left in empty oil bottles and cans so that use it for a light and heat their food which is all from cans..
They try to avoid the few other people they find signs of . There is no civilization any more, just occasional groups in communes, and some of these have resorted to cannibalism.. Some of these groups have evolved into a sort of organisation and travel around in convoys. They have their leaders at the front, identifiable with red scarves, with men with spears behind them, and behind thoseare wagons drawn by slaves, followed by the womenand after that their sex slaves. I felt a strange sense of hope at reading of these groupsin that perhaps this was the beginning of some sort of social order that might eventually evolve into some thing better. It brought to mind the beginnings of the Roman Empire.
It is a well written bookthat draws the reader in,but some may find it just too distasteful to continue with it. I did find the writing style a bit " olden"

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Thank you Netgallery UK for a copy for an unbiased review.
It should be noted this edition is part of the Picador Collection, a series of the best in contemporary literature, inaugurated in Picador's 50th Anniversary year.

For various reasons this is a book that I've just never got around to reading. So with Netgallery offering the chance I decided to take it.

Where to begin?
In three words. It was awful!
That's it in the simplest terms, yet in this book the dialogue is anything but simple. It is a jumbled mess of repetition, is pretty often stilted and, well just bad. I heard that the author has been lauded for his mastery of language. Yet all I saw was a mess. I finished the book. Eventually. It has been nothing more than a slog start to finish, and despite being something I rarely do, I contemplated having this as a DNF book. Even though I did finish it, it was just so devoid of anything that felt as if I could be positive over it.
I'm rarely this disparaging over a book, but this one deserves to be placed into a deep dark hole somewhere and forgotten about.
If I could give this zero stars I would. So 1/5 stars will have to suffice.

An immensely moving father and son story. I'm a great fan of McCarthy's writing style and this one didn't fail to impress. Beautiful, depressing and heartbreaking.

Cormac McCarthy's Pulitizer prize winning novel is a bleakly chilling philosophical portrait of a post-apocalyptic America, exploring the best and the worst of humanity. It is a moving and demanding read that takes in a desperate and perilous journey of an unnamed father and son across a devastated, nightmarish landscape where all seems lost and hopeless. What stands out is the power of the lyrical, sparse and beautiful language that effortlessly holds the attention of the reader. Starkly straining through the narrative amidst the terror and darkness, is what marks the best of humanity, the light and hope offered by love, illustrated by the depth of the relationship between father and son, their love for each other shines, underlining the dilemmas that face the father as his health deteriorates. Their endurance as they keep putting one weary foot in front of the other amidst the grim realities and apparent futility that confront them depict the gritty and tenacious spirit of human survival, going who knows where, despite the horror of the threats that come their way.

Sadly and scarily McCarthy's post- apocalyptic world does not seem all that far fetched, given contemporary global realities. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher.