The Road

A man and his son walk south through a burnt America pushing a shopping trolley, and McCarthy never once tells you what happened or why, which turns out to be exactly the right call. There’s no plot to speak of; they walk, they find food or they don’t, they hide from the people who have started eating each other. The father is keeping two things going, the boy and a pistol with not many bullets left in it, and he is entirely clear with himself about what the second one is for. They talk about carrying the fire. The final paragraph is about trout in mountain streams and appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with anything.

I read this when I was quite young because I liked the author. Looking back now, I had no idea it would set me on my way to the kinds of things I read next.