The Night Watchman: Pulitzer Prize Winning Fiction
Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Night Watchman is 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, D.C. 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.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Content warning for alcohol abuse, state-sponsored kidnapping and violence, murder, sexual abuse, forced prostitution, graphic content, and related topics. I thought this book was fantastic. I liked the characters and how they developed over the course of the story, including the secondary characters. The magical realism in the story was really successful, Erdrich really is an incredible author. My only qualm was the disconnect between Patrice and Thomas's stories. Eventually they joined up, but for the first 3/4 of the novel you're left wondering where the intersection will be.
This book will have me processing for a long time. It was an honor to get a glimpse into the Turtle Mountain people and their journey that was not unlike so many other tribes.
I've been living on Turtle Mountain for a few weeks, and I am sad to have to leave. What an homage to Erdrich's grandfather and all he did for his community. I am honored to have spent time with them and to have learned their stories. I am also humbled and shamed by our treatment of all people who were here first. Thomas and Pixie (oops, Patrice), I'll miss you the most, but your story will stay in my ❣️.
Our group’s ratings ranged from 4 to 8, with an average of 6.5. Although not everyone would recommend it, we had a great discussion about it, which was important for our group’s first meeting.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.