cover image The Power of the Dog

The Power of the Dog

Thomas Savage. Back Bay Books, $13.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-316-64220-0

First published in 1967 to critical raves, Thomas Savage's The Power of the Dog now includes an afterword by Annie Proulx. It traces the tense relationship between two bachelor brothers, Phil and George Burbank, on a Montana ranch in the 1920s. When George marries a widow, Phil, a bullying, repressed homosexual, terrorizes his new sister-in-law. And when her teenage son comes to the ranch, things get even more complicated. This is just the first reissue of a long-out-of-print book by Savage, hailed as a true master of the western genre. I Heard My Sister Speak My Name is scheduled for this fall, retitled The Sheep Queen.