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The Labrador Pact: A Novel Paperback – February 24, 2009

by Matt Haig (Author)

4.2 54 ratings

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The story of a family in crisis and the loyal dog that holds them together, from the author of How To Stop Time and Reasons to Stay Alive.

"Matt Haig has an empathy for the human condition, the light and the dark of it, and he uses the full palette to build his excellent stories." —Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods

Meet Prince, the canine narrator of this tragi-comic tale of family life. As with all Labradors, he has devoted his entire existence to preserving the happiness and security of his human masters. Not that his human masters realise this, of course. After all, when the Hunter family rescued him, they had no idea that they were the ones who were really being saved. But as events unfold Prince realises he’s got his work cut out.

The trouble is that while he has no problem in remembering his duty, the Hunters themselves seem to have greater difficulty remembering theirs. Of particular concern is Adam Hunter, who forgets his responsibilities as a father and husband when he becomes sexually attracted to a young and flirtatious aromatherapist. Then there’s Kate, Adam’s wife. As Prince watches her increasingly neurotic behaviour he detects something is wrong and decides to sniff out the source of the trouble. What he eventually discovers is a treacherous secret that could tear Adam, Kate, and their two children apart.

The Labrador Pact explores the hidden dangers of family life from the perspective of the only family member who gets to see everything – the knee-high, four-legged observer in the corner of the room. Through Prince’s eyes (and nose) we come to realise the secrets which hold families together and which, once dug up, can lead to their destruction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wry, serio-comic family tail, er, tale, for our serio-comic times." —The Washington Post

"Dark, comic, and quite brilliantly adult." —The New York Times

"Haig pulls it off stylishly and unsentimentally." —The Observer

"I love this book. It's fabulous and moving and funny and strange. It will go
down among the great animal books." —Jeanette Winterson, author of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Praise for How To Stop Time

“Matt Haig’s latest book, How To Stop Time, is marvelous in every sense of the word. Clever, funny, poignant, and written with Haig’s trademark blend of crystalline prose and deft storytelling, this is a book that stirs the heart and mind in equal measure. A hugely enjoyable read.” - Deborah Harkness author of The All Souls Trilogy

"Compelling and full of life's big questions, How To Stop Time is a book you will not be able to put down." —Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project

"The narrator is 400 years old, but the sardonic asides give this pacy novel a modern twist. Matt Haig has designs on our heartstrings . . . The energy and zip of this book are hard to resist." —The Guardian

"Matt Haig is astounding." —Stephen Fry

About the Author

Matt Haig is the internationally bestselling writer of six novels including the forthcoming How to Stop Time (on sale February 2018), several award-winning children’s books, and one work of nonfiction, Reasons To Stay Alive. The Labrador Pact is his second novel, and his work has been translated into thirty languages.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (February 24, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143114646
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143114642
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.1 x 6.4 x 5.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,569 in Humorous Fiction
- #16,899 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #55,390 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 54 ratings

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Matt Haig

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Matt Haig is the internationally bestselling author of the novels The Midnight Library, How to Stop Time, The Humans, The Radleys, children's novel A Boy Called Christmas, and memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. His latest novel is The Life Impossible, which will be published in summer 2024. His work has been translated into over fifty languages.

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4.2 out of 5

54 global ratings

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A Customer

Great book for dog lovers, WARNING: SAD

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

Great book, I had to get it in hard copy because it’s not on kindle. It was strange to be reading and brush the page before realizing I was reading a book with pages, I felt like an idiot. I discovered the author on kindle and have read everything I can get my hands on. This book needs to be offered on kindle.

3 people found this helpful

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Dorothy

Fun read

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Love Matt Haig. Fun book told from the Labrador’s point of view.

One person found this helpful

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Amazons Customers

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

I love Matt Haig! The Labrador Pact was a wonderful take on the loyalty of a family pet.

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

My first read by this author so probably didn't set myself up for a darker style of ending to a book about the family dog.

2 people found this helpful

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Helen T. Diehl

Loved the book, not the ending :(

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2009

Verified Purchase

Labrador Pact starts with the ending but you SO WANT the book to end differently. All along you are hoping something will change.
Prince is the family dog doing his best to uphold the "Labrador Pact". You really want Prince to succeed in his mission.......which as you learn is not an easy task. I can usually figure out some "stuff" in books but this one really throws some zingers in there.
Enjoyable book overall (but I don't know ANYONE who liked the ending). I almost wish authors would give readers multiple choices of how the book ends..... It's my first book by Matt Haig & it won't be my last.

12 people found this helpful

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Disabled Dog Dad

Good start, easy middle, hard finish

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2011

Overall, I must say that I did enjoy the book. Not as much as I've enjoyed others.. but reading this novel wasn't entirely a waste of time. It was really sad to me to know what was coming in the end since it was the beginning, but it set the book up very nicely. I can't imagine there being a more suitable start to this novel.

The rest of the book moved quite quickly, when I was reading it (at the time, I was also immersed in other books, like Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon by Nick Trout). The bungee jumping scene near the end was particularly riveting, as was the reveal that the friend and mentor of Prince, the canine main character and narrator (which is another thing I found frustrating, but I'll get to that momentarily), had come to such an ugly end at the hand of his neurotic owner. But that all lead to a most-irritating end! It was too abrupt, with too little fight on the dog's part, even though Labradors are known for being docile.

Getting briefly to the canine narration, I have to say that I have some serious conflicting feelings. While I do believe that dogs are infinitely smarter and have more awareness than we humans give them credit for, I seriously doubt they have the kind of consciousness and cognition to tell a story like Prince. I know that it was a work of fiction, aimed possibly at an upper-high school age range, but I tend to gravitate more towards fiction about dogs (or, more than that, non-fiction about dogs written by their owners, like Jon Katz's book Soul of a Dog: Reflections on the Spirits of the Animals of Bedlam Farm ) which don't blatantly anthropomorphize them like this one did.

Like I said, this novel was not an entire waste of however many days to put down. In some spots, it was quite the page-turner, but I would not read it again, and probably will not read anymore Matt Haig books.

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2018

cute read

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2015