A Tale for the Time Being sounds fabulous, and I've put in a library request. Thank you.

I don't necessarily think of McCarthy as bleak, aside from The Road, more empty and lonely. Most of what I've read is his realist westerns, and I guess those are pretty desolate, but I think they have a fair bit of hope and beauty to them. At this point in the American political cycle, I'll take Le Guin and Star Trek for my futurism, and maybe look into dystopias after the next election.