The Power of the Dog cover art

The Power of the Dog

A Novel

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The Power of the Dog

By: Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Chad Michael Collins, Annie Proulx
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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
So good to go behind the motivations for the characters. Stick around for the bonus material at the end 👍

Great accompaniment to the very good movie

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Direct clear prose that manages to create nuanced believable characters.

You will want to listen to it in one sitting.

I won’t view a willow tree in the same way ever again.

Thoroughly engaging

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A great book. I had to binge listen. had me wanting more. want to see the movie now.

fantastic

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An amazing story, skilfully told. Narration was perfect and the afterword a delightful bonus.

Loved it!

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The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

“Having closed the little door and hidden away the little key, George would again look straight into the face of the clock and then at his accurate pocket watch.

And that was that! But wonderful to watch.

It was more than watching a man wind a full clock. It was watching a man seeing to it that things went on the way that they had. And always would.”

Into this undisturbed and familiar landscape of the Burbank brothers comes the unlikely and transformative figure of a woman. Brother George is enamoured with his new wife. Older Brother Phil is livid.

Set mostly on the Burbank ranch in rural Montana in 1925, the narrative is a delight to read. And a compulsory companion to the Jane Campion adaptation released in 2021.

Annie Proulx, who writes the afterword, places it amongst other great American novels from the early 20th Century.

The Track of the Cat - Walter Van Tilburg Clark

The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner

New Wine - Katherine Ann Porter

The Power of the Savage

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