
The Road
American novelist, 1933–2023. Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1992 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007.
The Road is a 2006 novel by Cormac McCarthy. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007.
On 8 of the 13 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Cormac McCarthy
- First published
- 2006
- Length
- 336 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 2007
- Genre
- Science fiction, Post-apocalyptic, Adventure
Is The Road worth reading?
8 of the 13 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk, 2014) | Listed | See the list |
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| Oprah's Book Club picks (Oprah's Book Club, 1996-) | Listed | See the list |
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 2007) | Winner | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 80 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The Guardian, 2019) | No. 17 | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 13 | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 100 | See the list |
Best edition of The Road
The edition we link to is the Picador paperback (2022), 336 pages.
- Publisher
- Picador (paperback, 2022)
- Pages
- 336
- ISBN
- 9781035003792
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Road
Critics and readers rate it about equally: it earned 63% on critics' lists and 60% on readers' and booksellers' lists, against 33% on prize lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Road
If you liked The Road, try Blood Meridian, Never Let Me Go or The Handmaid's Tale.



