The Son cover art

The Son

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

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

The Son

By: Philipp Meyer
Narrated by: Will Patton, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Shepherd, Clifton Collins Jr.
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £19.83

Buy Now for £19.83

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The critically acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling epic, a saga of land, blood and power, follows the rise of one unforgettable Texas family from the Comanche raids of the 1800s to the oil booms of the 20th century.

Eli McCullough is just twelve years old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead, brutally murder his mother and sister and take him captive. Despite their torture and cruelty, Eli - against all odds - adapts to life with the Comanche, learning their ways and language, taking on a new name, finding a place as the adopted son of the band's chief and fighting their wars against not only other Indians but white men too, which complicates his sense of loyalty, his promised vengeance and his very understanding of self. But when disease, starvation and westward expansion finally decimate the Comanche, Eli is left alone in a world in which he belongs nowhere, neither white nor Indian, civilized nor fully wild.

Deftly interweaving Eli’s story with those of his son Peter and his great-granddaughter JA, The Son maps the legacy of Eli’s ruthlessness, his drive to power and his lifelong status as an outsider, even as the McCullough family rises to become one of the richest in Texas, a ranching and oil dynasty that is as resilient and dangerous as the land they claim. Yet, like all empires, the McCulloughs must eventually face the consequences of their choices.

Panoramic, deeply evocative and utterly transporting, The Son is a masterpiece American novel - part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story - that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife-edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.

'Stunning ... a book that for once really does deserve to be called a masterpiece' Kate Atkinson

'Magnificent ... McCarthy's Border Trilogy is a point of reference, as is There Will Be Blood, but it is not fanciful to be reminded of certain passages from Moby-Dick - it's that good'The Times

'Brilliant ... a wonderful novel' Lionel Shriver
 Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Wild West Old West
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
just listen, really well read and written. some of it is like poetry. For once the characters are different people so adds quality to the reading.

fantastic book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Will Paton brings just enough menace and empathy to his character to keep you on his side even when he is complicit in some unspeakable acts. The story is just long enough and as it unravels you find yourself totally lost in the narrative and not wanting to come back to reality.
I would highly recommend this book if your are a fan of well written and well read American literature such as Thomas Berger or a solid Stephen King.

Love this book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really liked the storylines, but found them very hard to follow as the narration jumped back and forth. And after a grand family saga, the ending did not quite live up to the rest.

Hard to follow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
For years I thought Steinbeck the greatest storyteller, but this is certainly equal if not better.
And the readers are all perfect in their parts. Which is so rarely true.

The pinnacle of storytelling possibly the best book I’ve ever read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listened for several hours but couldn’t get into it at all. Struggled to keep track of the different family members and lost interest. Shame as I usually like this kind of genre.

Found it really hard to get into

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews