How many pages is The Road?

287 pages, which is about 86,000 words and 5½ hrs of reading. Editions vary, so we take the figure two of our three sources agree on.

Is The Road worth reading?

Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.02 out of 5, from 2,467 ratings. What we can tell you for certain is the cost: 287 pages and about 5½ hrs of your time, or 3½ hrs if you read quickly. Whether that is worth it depends on the hours you have.

How long is The Road audiobook?

About 9½ hrs, estimated from the 86,000 words at a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute. Real editions vary by narrator, usually by well under an hour.

Find a copy Listen · ≈9½ hrs

The Road

Name: The Road
Author: Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy

5½ hrsto read

At your speed≈ 5½ hrs

Pages287

Audiobook≈ 9½ hrs

287 pages works out to roughly 86,000 words. At an average 250 words a minute that is 5½ hrs — a weekend's reading.

Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.02 out of 5, from 2,467 ratings.

How long does it take to read The Road?

The Road is 287 pages, or roughly 86,000 words. How long that takes depends on how fast you read:

Estimated reading time for The Road at three reading speeds.
Your pace	Words per minute	Time to finish
Slow	175	8 hrs
Average	250	5½ hrs
Fast	400	3½ hrs

Estimated at about 300 words per page. Most adults read between 200 and 300 words a minute — use the reading-speed control to set your own pace and every time on the site adjusts.

Your reading speed… wpm

Every reading time on the site updates to your pace. Page counts are an estimate, so treat the hours as a good guide, not a stopwatch.

Common questions

How long does it take to read The Road?: About 5½ hrs at an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. The Road runs 287 pages, roughly 86,000 words — so at a slower 175 wpm it is nearer 8 hrs, and at 400 wpm closer to 3½ hrs.
How many pages is The Road?: 287 pages, which is about 86,000 words and 5½ hrs of reading. Editions vary, so we take the figure two of our three sources agree on.
Is The Road worth reading?: Readers on Hardcover rate it 4.02 out of 5, from 2,467 ratings. What we can tell you for certain is the cost: 287 pages and about 5½ hrs of your time, or 3½ hrs if you read quickly. Whether that is worth it depends on the hours you have.
How long is The Road audiobook?: About 9½ hrs, estimated from the 86,000 words at a typical narration pace of 150 words a minute. Real editions vary by narrator, usually by well under an hour.

From the publisher

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there.…

They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

FictionDystopiaAdventurepost-apocalyptic fictionextinction eventFathers and sonsSurvival skillsRegression (Civilization)

America, U.S.A.Eddie S. Glaude Jr