He pushed the cart and both he and the boy carried knapsacks. In the knapsacks were essential things. In case they had to abandon the cart and make a run for it. Clamped to the handle of the cart was a chrome motorcycle mirror that he used to watch the road behind them. ~page 5

We live in a world where life is easy for us, but what we don’t think about is how much we take things for granted. What we don’t realize is that all of that can be taken away, and we will have nothing to resort to but each other. What will we become then? ~ Francis

For me, this book wasn’t about how depressing the world might become, or how it already is depressing. This novel is a wonderful example of how love will always be unconditional and how families can stick together through anything. The love shared between the man and the boy is the strongest bond known to mankind. ~Andria

They came to an old iron bridge in the woods where the vanished road had crossed an all but vanished steam. He was starting to cough and he’d hardly breath to do it with. He dropped down out of the road way and into the woods. He turned and stood gasping, trying to listen He heard nothing. He staggered on another half hour mile or so and finally dropped to his knees and put the boy down in the ashes and leaves. He wiped the blood from his face and held him. ~ Page 66

Across the fields to the south he could see the shape of a house and a barn. Beyond the trees the curve of the road. A long drive with dead grass. Dead ivy along a stone wall and a mailbox and a fence along the road and dead trees beyond. Cold and silent. Shrouded in the carbon fog. He walked back and sat beside the boy. It was desperation that had led him to such carelessness and he knew that he could not do that again. No matter what. ~page 117

We wouldn’t ever eat anybody would we? No. Of coarse not. Even if we’re starving? We’re starving now. You said we weren’t I said we weren’t dying. I didn’t say we weren’t starving. But we wouldn’t. No. We wouldn’t. No matter what? No. No matter what. Because we’re the good guys. Yes. ~ Page 129

He was beginning to think death was finally upon them and that they should find some place to hide where they would not be found. There were times when he sat watching the boy sleep that he would begin to sob uncontrollably but it wasn’t about death. He wasn’t sure what it was about but he thought it was about beauty or about goodness. Things that he’d no longer any way to think about at all. They squatted in a bleak wood and drank ditch water strained through a rag. He’d seen the boy in a dream lay out on a coolingboard and woke in horror. What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return. ~page 130

What is death?