Oprah picks apocalyptic tale for book club

Literary tastemaker Oprah Winfrey has selected a bleak, apocalyptic tale by an acclaimed butreclusive author for her massively successful book club.

The Chicago-based host announced on her daily talk show Wednesday that she has picked Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a book she admitted was an unusual choice but praised as "so extraordinary."

"I promise you, you'll be thinking about it long after you finish the final page," she said.

Winfrey also added that the 73-year-old U.S. author, who rarely speaks to the media, will appear on her hit program in the coming weeks to give his "first television interview ever."

McCarthy, who published The Road in September 2006, is best known for past novels such as All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian. He has been hailed as one of the greatest living U.S. writers.

The Road is set in the aftermath of a catastrophe that has left the land largely dead and barren. The tale follows a father and son struggling to cross the harsh terrain in search of the sea.

The choice of McCarthy is a return to fiction for Winfrey, whose last few selections were memoirs, including Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier's The Measure of a Man and Holocaust survivorElie Wiesel's Night.

Prior to her recommendation of Wiesel's book, Winfrey chose James Frey's addiction and recovery memoir A Million Little Pieces, large swathes of which he later admitted had been fabricated.

Being selected by the highly influential Winfrey —North American television's highest-profile daytime talk show personality —almost guarantees that a book will see a substantial spike in sales.

Canadian titles Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry are among the past fiction works propelled into U.S. bestseller status after being chosen for Winfrey's book club, which has approximately 700,000 registered members.