The Night Watchman
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 2021
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4.5 • 15 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION 2021
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal?
Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie - 'Patrice' - Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera.
In The Night Watchman multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress. She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives, desires and ambitions of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Erdrich (Love Medicine) returns to North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Reservation for this stirring tale of a young Chippewa woman and her uncle's effort to halt the Termination Act of 1953. Pixie Paranteau takes a leave of absence from her job at the Jewel Bearing Plant to search for her sister, Vera, who was last seen in Minneapolis. Though she fails to find Vera, sparks fly between Pixie and a promising young boxer named Wood Mountain. Pixie then travels with her uncle Thomas, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Advisory Committee, to Washington, D.C., where he testifies at a congressional hearing on a bill abrogating treaties with Indians and abolishing Indian tribes. Also accompanying them are graduate student Millie Cloud and the ghost of Thomas's boyhood friend Roderick. Erdrich captures the Chippewa community's durable network of families, friends, and neighbors, alive or dead, including Pixie's alcoholic father and wise mother, who live in poverty. The heartbreaking conclusion to Vera's story resonates with the pervasive crisis of missing Native American women, while Thomas, Wood Mountain, and his trainer rally to put together a match to raise funds for Thomas's efforts to keep their land. Erdrich's inspired portrait of her own tribe's resilient heritage masterfully encompasses an array of characters and historical events. Erdrich remains an essential voice.
Customer Reviews
Simply wonderful
The most important American story there is.
Beautiful
Devoured this so quickly, recommend.