I'll be thinking about the end of this story for a while.

The Road, without spoiling the book for you, is a story of humanity in an inhumane world. The Man and The Boy wander the road after a nameless calamity. It doesn't matter anymore what caused this complete and utter devastation. The world is a burned out shell regardless. Most of humanity is assumed to be dead.

Our two unnamed characters wander the road in search of the coast and a warmer climate for winter. The Man pushes himself hard, sacrificing all along the way, to try to reach some sort of better environment for the boy, although no one is sure that there's anything better to be found. There is only the road, the ash, the cold, and the rain and wind. The Boy talks about finding the Good Guys out there somewhere, but they never seem to find any and when they do find other people, the Man can hardly stand to be a Good Guy himself.

It's an unimaginably harsh and desolate story told in the most loving and gentle way, without any spare words but somehow still full of metaphor and beauty.

I encourage you to pick it up and read it.