Words At Large

Civilization has been wiped out by an immense cataclysm. In its aftermath, a man and his young son are traveling through the blasted landscape of the southeastern United States, seeking shelter for the winter, their very survival at stake. The journey is made perilous by gangs of marauders and cannibals and by the constant need to scavenge for food.

This is the bleak scenario of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (Vintage), a Pulitzer Prize winner and Oprah’s Book Club selection that’s been greeted with a resounding chorus of critical acclaim despite its grimness. Kirkus Reviews praised it as “a novel of horrific beauty” and Entertainment Weekly named it the best book of the last 25 years.

Cormac McCarthy is one of the most celebrated fiction writers in the United States, particularly after his novel No Country for Old Men (Knopf) became an Oscar-winning film. He’s written numerous other books, including Blood Meridian (Modern Library) and All the Pretty Horses (Vintage), but many critics are calling The Road his greatest ever.

Toronto authors Katherine Ashenburg and Don Gillmor and Winnipeg writer Jake MacDonald join Talking Books host Ian Brown to talk about the horrors — and the rare glints of hope — along the way in The Road. Listen to their conversation here:

First aired October 20, 2007 on Talking Books. [runs 19:26]