Each stop along their journey is as memorable as any novel in recent memory.

Years after an unidentified catastrophic event leaves America in ash, a man and a boy wander through the burnt landscape in search of something ... anything.

So goes Cormac McCarthys newest novel, The Road, which has found new life nearly six months after it was released.

In March, the novel became quite possibly the bleakest selection in the history of Oprahs Book Club. Even stranger is the fact that McCarthy himself will be making his first televised appearance on Oprah later this year. The 73-year-old author has been known to be as secretive as JD Salinger.

On April 16, The Road won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, placing McCarthy in the company of such legends as Faulkner, Hemingway and Updike.

The post-apocalyptic tale places the nameless pair along one of the arteries of America. As they make their way across the land, there is a constant fear present in the form of savages that hunt survivors. These ruthless marauders leave a trail of the dead and defiled that resemble mile markers along the road.

To top it all off, the man comes to the realization that he is dying. Faced with the choice to simply give up and die, or trudge on in hopes of finding some form of salvation, he looks to the face of the boy. In it, the man sees hope. He constantly tells the boy that they must continue, because they are the ones carrying the fire.

Each stop along their journey is as memorable as any novel in recent memory. McCarthy paints the landscape with a brutal honesty that works in harmony with the plight of the man and the boy. Part of the true power of this novel comes from the ambiguity of the events that precede the first page.

The reader never really knows exactly what caused America to be torn apart or whether the rest of the world has suffered the same fate.

It is even uncertain as to whether the man is the boys father or just a newly anointed guardian. However, this fact seems irrelevant when viewing the big picture. The bond that the two share is as intimate as any.

Some may be turned off from the lyrical prose style which this novel, along with his other classics like Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses, is written in. Although short, (about 250 pages), The Road is by no means a quick and easy read. McCarthy crafts images with such delicate precision that multiple readings of many pages are required to fully embrace his vision.

Also, some might find the ash-blanketed landscape too depressing to immerse themselves in. While I respect this opinion, I truly feel that anyone who passes up The Road is passing up one of the finest American novels ever written.

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