diff --git a/cranelift/module/Cargo.toml b/cranelift/module/Cargo.toml
index 765179c649..423b2fdf85 100644
--- a/cranelift/module/Cargo.toml
+++ b/cranelift/module/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ cranelift-entity = { path = "../entity", version = "0.59.0" }
 hashbrown = { version = "0.6", optional = true }
 log = { version = "0.4.6", default-features = false }
 thiserror = "1.0.4"
+anyhow = "1.0"
 
 [features]
 default = ["std"]
diff --git a/cranelift/module/src/module.rs b/cranelift/module/src/module.rs
index daa83c2956..470eea17fe 100644
--- a/cranelift/module/src/module.rs
+++ b/cranelift/module/src/module.rs
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ pub enum ModuleError {
     Compilation(#[from] CodegenError),
     /// Wraps a generic error from a backend
     #[error("Backend error: {0}")]
-    Backend(String),
+    Backend(#[source] anyhow::Error),
 }
 
 /// A convenient alias for a `Result` that uses `ModuleError` as the error type.