Under the Dome - by Stephen King (Hardcover)

About the Book

On a beautiful fall day, the town of Chester's Mill, Maine, is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one knows what this barrier is and when--or if--it will go away.

Book Synopsis

The "propulsively intriguing, staggeringly addictive" (USA TODAY) novel from master storyteller Stephen King--a #1 New York Times bestseller.

It is a typical October morning in Chester's Mill, Maine: glorious weather, a perfectly blue sky, and quiet. Then, all hell breaks loose. Inexplicably, and simultaneously, a plane falls from the sky in flames; a woman's hand is severed; and a farmer's John Deere explores (with him on it). A few moments later, a pulp-truck crashes spectacularly. Somehow, an invisible and impermeable barrier--exactly following the town's perimeter--has descended upon the town.

Life under the dome quickly becomes a hothouse--with the best in some people and the worst in others flourishing. There are unambiguous heroes and villains, from a supremely corrupt local politician to a very enterprising newspaper reporter. The situation under the dome deteriorates by the minute: supplies of everything are diminishing quickly, the citizens are panicking, and the police force, under the control of the diabolically devious alderman Jim Rennie, implement their own version of martial law. Meanwhile, Barbie, brave Iraq war vet and short order cook, and a band of intrepid pals engage in a race against time to find the source of the dome and raise it before there's nobody left alive in Chester's Mill.

Under the Dome is filled with a marvelous and enormous cast of over 100 characters. King's trademark idiomatic language is pure pleasure to read. "Nowhere in Mr. King's immense body of work have his real and fantasy world collided with such head-on force" (The New York Times Book Review).

Review Quotes

"Propulsively intriguing... Staggeringly addictive... King grips us in a chokehold of un-put-downable fascination for more than 1,000 pages." --USA Today

"Tight and energetic from start to finish. Nowhere in Mr. King's immense body of work have his real and fantasy world collided with such head-on force." --New York Times

"King's ability to create a gripping world is so great, his pacing so effortlessly swift, that it can feel as if you're caught in a cat's claws, at once fearful of and delighted by the horrors the next page might bring.... King knows that the biggest danger comes not from the outsider--but from the mob growing within. We are all under the dome." --Esquire

"An author whose continued and slightly frenzied commerce with his muse has been one of the more enthralling spectacles in American literature.... Writing flat-out keeps King close to his story, close to his source. It seems to magnetize his imagination." --New York Times Book Review (cover review)

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch, the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.