“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

A searing vision of love and desolation, The Road stands among the defining works of twenty-first-century American literature. In prose stripped to its essence, Cormac McCarthy renders a world reduced to ash and silence—a landscape where civilisation has long since fallen, and a father and his son make their way through its ruins.

Together they journey through the wasteland, moving south toward an unseen coast, driven by a faint and unspoken hope. Their world is one of scarcity and fear, yet within its ruins McCarthy finds a stark and terrible beauty: the persistence of tenderness, the instinct to protect, the stubborn will to carry the fire when all light seems extinguished.

Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and named one of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, The Road is both elegy and testament—a meditation on love as the last refuge of meaning in a ruined world. Bleak yet transcendent, it remains one of the most haunting and humane novels of our time.

For any parent, The Road carries a particular resonance—a reflection of love’s quiet ferocity in the face of despair. Conversation Tree Press is honoured to present this modern classic in a fine press edition worthy of its power.

Edition Details

The Road will be letterpress-printed and feature newly commissioned artwork. It will be issued as a limited edition in four states: a Collector’s Edition of 750 copies, a Deluxe Edition of 250 copies, a Lettered Edition of 26 copies, and a Roman Numeral Edition of 10 copies. 

The edition will feature:

• Printing on luxurious paper on all four states. Lettered and Roman Numeral Editions printed on custom, handmade paper.
• Durable, sewn bindings with a ribbon marker and head and tail bands.
• Premium binding materials, including real goatskin leather and hand-marbled paper on some tiers.
• Handmade slipcases/enclosures included at no additional cost.
  
• All artwork included in all states.

Collector’s, Deluxe and Lettered Editions Handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders

Pictured above, some of our bindings executed by Ludlow Bookbinders.

Ludlow Bookbinders, located in Shropshire, England have been keeping the craft of English bookbinding alive for generations. They’ve hand bound a number of Conversation Tree Press editions, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them on The Road.

Roman Numeral Edition Designed and Bound by Kate Holland

Pictured above, Kate Holland’s one-off design binding of our edition of Treasure Island for my personal collection.

The Roman Numeral Edition will be designed and bound by Kate Holland. Kate recently completed a design binding of Treasure Island from one of our unbound sheets for my personal collection, which you can see here and here. I’ve admired her work for some time, and it was a real pleasure to witness her thought process and craftsmanship firsthand. We’re looking forward to collaborating with her on this more ambitious project which we can share with collectors.

N.B. By the time The Road becomes available, it will mark Conversation Tree Press’s third Roman Numeral Edition. The second will appear in 2027, also limited to 10 copies. A single copy of our first Roman Numeral Edition, Joe Hill’s Faun, is still available. Collectors of Roman Numeral Editions have the right of first refusal to matching numbers of subsequent editions. 

More about Kate: Kate is a multi award-winning artist bookbinder, specialising in contemporary fine bindings to commission or for exhibition. She uses traditional materials and techniques to produce a unique, modern binding that reflects the text, illustrations and typeface of the book. 

She is a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders, one of the foremost societies dedicated to the craft of fine bookbinding, as well as being designated a Master Artisan by the Europe-wide Homo Faber guide. 

She has books in the collections of the V&A, British, Bodleian and Yale University Libraries, the Walker Library of the Human Imagination as well as public and private collections internationally.

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Schedule

Publication of The Road is planned for 2028. We’ve begun announcing most titles well in advance so collectors can anticipate upcoming releases. At the same time, we’re continuing to invest considerable time and resources into shortening the gap between pre-order and delivery of our books. 

See the Schedule page for more information on our upcoming releases, including:

• Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility
• China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station
• Octavia Butler’s Kindred
• Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
• Michael Moorcock’s The Chronicles of Elric
• Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter

We also publish a series of short stories and novelettes titled Short Stops. These are typically announced only once they are complete, with shipping beginning the same day orders open.

Cormac McCarthy

The novels of the American writer Cormac McCarthy have received a number of literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His works adapted to film include All the Pretty Horses, The Road, and No Country for Old Men—the latter film receiving four Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture.