Absolutely one of my favourite books ever! A cleverly woven and intertwined tale, combining three generations of action and adventure seemlessly into one compelling narrative. I felt like I was there, living in the West, living in the wild, living alongside the protagonists. Loved it. A must read.

A family tree that spans an entire page. A novel that’s described as ‘epic’. What I got was not what I expected but I loved it. We follow the stories of three characters from the family: Eli, the boy who is taking captive by Comanches, Peter, his son who has to deal with the killing of his Mexican neighbours and Jennie, the great-granddaughter who struggles as a woman in the masculine oil industry. Normally in a book with three story lines, I find one more interesting than the others. Not here! I was completely gripped by all three of these stories full of greed and violence. Wonderful read.

The Son is a novel of three generations of the McCullough family, a tragedy of human violence and the cruelty of the survivor that spans the ages. Eli McCullough, the eponymous "son" is captured and adopted by the Comanche Indians who have murdered his family. For three years, he lives as one of the tribe, until they are wiped out by a disease brought by the white men. He survives, and must cave out a new life as a ranger, civil war hero, and finally founds the ranch that is the inheritance of his son Peter, and great grand-daughter Jeannie, whose stories are interwoven with that of Eli. Fascinating for anyone with an interest in American history, this novel is yet more beautiful as a study of men, families, and what drives us to live, and to survive, at any cost. A savage and epic story in the tradition of the classic American novel.

A great, pacy read from a previous Waterstones 11 author. There are many sons in the McCullough family, as the narratives cover roughly 150 years, seen through the eyes of three generations represented by Eli McCullough in the mid 1800s, his son Peter's diaries from 1916-1917 and Peter's daughter Jeannie carrying on to the conclusion of the book. Eli's plotline gets off to a great start when, as a boy, the family home is attacked by a Comanche raiding party, and he is captured along with his brother. Later on we see how he establishes the family which has grown in size and wealth by the time Peter and then Jeannie come along, and their lives are markedly different from Eli's struggle for survival, even though each has their troubles to overcome. The Texas setting is everything you could expect, the plots far from typical of what is essentially a family saga, and there are light-hearted moments (such as when Edna Ferber comes to research her new novel about Texas families) to contrast with the often harsh and violent times the McCulloughs live and participate in.

I'm slightly ashamed and feel I owe the author an apology for my reaction to this book. The effort behind this epic is clear, especially in terms of the Comanche history, culture and language but effort doesn't necessarily equal engagement. I gave the book my full attention and I tried my upmost to like it but I just didn't. I liked parts of it but not enough to save the whole. Maybe it was because I didn't really care about Eli, Peter or Jeannie. My only emotional attachment was with the Comanches and their loss of self. I don't like westerns that haven't got a smidgeon of light relief, I was glad when JR was shot in the 80s and although this book is brilliantly written, the author is a true 'grafter' and it's received rave reviews it just didn't do it for me. I respect The Son but I don’t miss reading it. Sorry.