The Night Watchman

De: Louise Erdrich

Narrado por: Louise Erdrich

Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

New York Times Best Seller

Washington Post, Amazon, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, Kirkus, Chicago Public Library, and Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2020

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, DC, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

©2020 Louise Erdrich (P)2020 HarperAudio

The NIght Watchman

I stayed up half the night listening to this good story. I gives you an interesting picture of Native Americans and all of their problems.

weak beginning; great middle; amateurish end

the first 25 chapters were backstory and had too many characters to keep track of without a notebook. beginning was told instead of shown. the end was weak, seemed contrived and unlikely as to wood mountain. the middle was superb. who was the protagonist? Not clear.

Sometimes a Slow Start is CRUCIAL

I had to speed the delivery up to 1.25x but knowing the audience and the style of story, it's basically slow-cooked home-cooking!

the imagery, the magic aka medicine, and the variety of characters are as good as it gets! It's story for a people who've persevered and still hear the echoes of their ancestors, yet it is accessible to the descendants of White invaders. This story is ultimately about the characters and the character of all peoples.

History, Heart, Compassion And Wisdom

Awaken your own connection to our beloved Mother Earth through the customs and wisdom of our First Nations tribes, The Chippewa and Cree of The Turtle Mountains.

This story of The Night Watchman filled my heart with love and compassion for our sisters and brothers who preserved their lineage and gained sovereignty through old ways and new.

Thank you Louise Erdrich.

masterful as usual

Amazing characters, fascinating setting. Louise Erdrich once again shows her mastery for storytelling. The historical context was so instructive.

Outstanding in every way.

Award-winning writer Louise Erdrich paints her vivid literary canvas with an unforgettable glimpse into the daily lives and dreams of an utterly believable cast of people you will immediately feel you have known all your life. Readers will be mesmerized by the many gracefully presented tragedies of a Chippewas community as well as the gripping true story of how they beat unbearable odds to save their way of life. A book of inspiring and uplifting courage. I recommend it to everyone.

sad, powerful, funny and evocative

the story based on truth and with truth at its core was captivating and engrossing. Erdrich delivers again

Wonderful book

She did a wonderful job. She honored her Grandfather with this book. I have recommended this book already to others.

interesting and intriguing

I love this book, the night watchman kept me interested from the beginning to the end. I learned a thing about the history of the world and the chippewas and how a small group of people can make a difference in their own future.

Love this!

I so enjoyed this book....and this author. I am working my way through all of Louise Erdrich's books that I can get a hold of. I am so curious, as I read the reviews of this book, about the anger I hear in some of them. It's as if it's a personal affront to the reader that it wasn't written to their specification. It's very strange. The narration was amazing. Such a lovely voice!

I first ran into Louise Erdrich with her Birch Bark House series as I was looking for books for my children. I fell in love with her characters and carry some of them with me still today. I have recommended her to a good many people and will continue to do so.