Why this fascination for depressing stories lately?

[magical thyme]

13. aaah, thank you. I knew Hunger Games was a series written for teens

and that was literally all I knew about it.

Now it sounds very interesting and very worthwhile for them to read and contemplate!

All I remember about The Road is it was written by a famous intellectual writer (I forget who) who had lived a writer's life, without a regular job, hanging out with other intellectual-types, etc. for a long time. Then became a father and for the first time felt the kind of parental love that drives you to work and do in order to care for and protect someone else. So he wrote The Road as a means to support his son, and it is about a father and son and survival in the aftermath of a major (nuclear?) apocalypse.

I saw an interview with the author on tv when it first came out, which is the only reason I've even heard of it.