The Power of the Dog cover art

The Power of the Dog

A Novel

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Power of the Dog

By: Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Chad Michael Collins, Annie Proulx
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.92

Buy Now for £12.92

About this listen

 Now an Academy Award-winning Netflix film by Jane Campion, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst: Thomas Savage's acclaimed Western is "a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place" (Boston Globe) for fans of East of Eden and Brokeback Mountain.

Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers — one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet — and of the mother and son whose arrival on the brothers’ ranch shatters an already tenuous peace. From the novel’s startling first paragraph to its very last word, Thomas Savage’s voice — and the intense passion of his characters — holds readers in thrall.

"Gripping and powerful...A work of literary art." —Annie Proulx, from her afterword Family Life Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Small Town & Rural
All stars
Most relevant
20s American ranchers, great landscape descriptions, great characterisation, and a story with an amazing twist.

superb plot

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the first time I have seen the film and then read the book and found both incomparable.
Jane Campion is a genius filmmaker (view in the cinema not streamed).
Savage’s original, complex study, superbly read, is mesmerising and stimulating.
With The Power of the Dog the written word and cinematic experience are different but true to the tale. This is a book I will listen too again.

Read the book ; see the film

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It will be an extraordinary challenge to make a film that captures the beauty of this book.

Extraordinary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is amazing. A stunning insight into the Montana ranch life in the early twentieth century. Phil is an electrifying character. He leaps off the page, so visceral you can almost smell him. Finding out what makes him tick, what makes him into this thoroughly horrible, misogynistic bully. The story builds so gradually and with each chapter, you find it even more compelling.

The narrator is brilliant and performs this exceptional book so wonderfully, he really brings it to life. The afterword by Annie Proulx is an interesting insight into the life of the author and the powerful imagery that makes this book essential reading.

Absolutely Essential Reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this novel far more than I thought I would. I approached it with some trepidation as the cowboy genre is not my usual reading. I like to read (or listen these days) the book before I watch a film of it and I’m very glad I did. It gives a gripping psychological description of the characters, particularly Phil, along with beautiful descriptions of the harsh landscape. I’m looking forward to watching Jane Campion’s film even more than I was.
I thought it was wonderful but I nowadays only give five stars to books I find truly exceptional. The narration is excellent.

Complex and powerful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.