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Synopsis
The story of a family in crisis and the loyal dog that holds them together, from the witty, imaginative author of The Dead Fathers Club.
The Hunters—Adam, Kate, and their children Hal and Charlotte—are a typical family, with typical concerns: work, money, love, the trials of adolescence. What sets them apart is Prince, their black labrador.
Prince is an earnest and determined young dog. He strives to live up to the tenets of the Labrador Pact: Duty Over All. Other dogs, led by the springer spaniels, have revolted, but Prince takes his responsibilities seriously. As things in the Hunter family begin to go awry—marital breakdown, rowdy teenage parties, attempted suicide—he uses every canine resource to keep the clan together.
In the end, Prince must choose: the family or the Pact? His decision may cost him everything.
Wry, perceptive, and heartbreaking, The Labrador Pact is a cunning and original take on domestic life, with an improbably poignant narrator.
The Barnes & Noble Review
All roads lead to Shakespeare for Matt Haig, which turns out to be a good thing. There s no one quite like the Bard for barging head-first into a tale of death, desperation, and betrayal, and wringing out some laughs along the way. No flinching, no sentimental sap, no turning back.
That s how Haig played it in his weird and wonderful debut novel, The Dead Father s Club, a modern re-working of Hamlet, and that s how he hands us The Labrador Pact, an offbeat look at domestic life through the eyes -- and voice -- of the family dog.