As the snow falls silently downward, it is gray. The ground it lands on is burned black and charred beyond the point of recognition. Cities have fallen and people have all but died away. The silence is almost impenetrable but for the two sets of feet walking through the wasteland. A father holds tightly to his son as they hide away from the savage clans of starving survivors and try to survive this ruined world. They are braving their way to the coast; their last and desperate hope of a better life.

These are the images created in my mind by author Cormac McCarthy and his unique writing style.

The award-winning McCarthy has received a great deal of praise for his literary works, and his fiction book “The Road” is no exception. It won the Pulitzer Prize for its harsh and brutally realistic story of sacrifice, unyielding love, and courage in the face of hopelessness and loss. It is a tale of a father’s love for his son and his desperate attempts to see him through a post-apocalyptic world and into a more beautiful future.

If readers are looking for adventure and tragedy, then this is the right book. It is emotionally stimulating and will leave you on the edge of your seat in suspense. McCarthy’s unique form of character development has readers committed wholeheartedly to the emotional struggles the characters experience.

“The Road” has been widely received as a breathtakingly tragic look at the father/son relationship and the hardships that humans are forced to face. Due to the book’s success, it has been made into a feature film premiering Oct. 16 starring Vigo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce.

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