Other Sellers on Amazon
+ $4.49 shipping
97% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
87% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
100% positive over last 12 months

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.


The Night Watchman: A Novel Paperback – March 23, 2021
Louise Erdrich (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Price | New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial |
Hardcover, Deckle Edge
"Please retry" | $11.92 | $4.00 |
Audio CD, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $12.90 | $12.00 |
Enhance your purchase
WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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, 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.
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.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Perennial
- Publication dateMarch 23, 2021
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.06 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100062671197
- ISBN-13978-0062671196
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
- The only way to fight the righteous was to present an argument that would make giving him what he wanted seem the only righteous thing to do.Highlighted by 1,617 Kindle readers
- The services that the government provides to Indians might be likened to rent. The rent for use of the entire country of the United States.Highlighted by 1,510 Kindle readers
- When Thomas thought of his father, peace stole across his chest and covered him like sunlight.Highlighted by 1,139 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Erdrich delivers a magisterial epic that brings her power of witness to every page…We are grateful to be allowed into this world…I walked away from the Turtle Mountain clan feeling deeply moved, missing these characters as if they were real people known to me. In this era of modern termination assailing us, the book feels like a call to arms. A call to humanity. A banquet prepared for us by hungry people.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, New York Times Book Review
"With The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich rediscovers her genius…This tapestry of stories is a signature of Erdrich’s literary craft, but she does it so beautifully that it’s tempting to forget how remarkable it is…This narrator’s vision is more capacious, reaching out across a whole community in tender conversation with itself. Expecting to follow the linear trajectory of a mystery, we discover in Erdrich’s fiction something more organic, more humane. Like her characters, we find ourselves “laughing in that desperate high-pitched way people laugh when their hearts are broken.” — Ron Charles, Washington Post
"Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman is a singular achievement even for this accomplished writer. . . Erdrich, like her grandfather, is a defender and raconteur of the lives of her people. Her intimate knowledge of the Native American world in collision with the white world has allowed her, over more than a dozen books, to create a brilliantly realized alternate history as rich as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.” — O, The Oprah Magazine
“In powerfully spare and elegant prose, Erdrich depicts deeply relatable characters who may be poor but are richly connected to family, community and the Earth.” — Patty Rhule, USA Today
“Erdrich’s newest novel thrills with luminous empathy.” — Boston Globe
“No one can break your heart and fill it with light all in the same book — sometimes in the same paragraph — quite like Louise Erdrich…She does it again, and beautifully, in her new book…gorgeously written, deeply humane…Erdrich’s writing about the bonds of marriage and family is one of the greatest strengths of her fiction. She captures all the affection, teasing, pain and forgiveness it takes to hold a family together.” — Tampa Bay Times
“What is most beautiful about the book is how this family feeling manifests itself in the way the people of The Night Watchman see the world, their fierce attachment to each other, however close or distant, living or dead.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Louise Erdrich is one of our era’s most powerful literary voices…In The Night Watchman Erdrich’s blend of spirituality, gallows humor, and political resistance is at play…It may be set in the 1950s, but the history it unearths and its themes of taking a stand against injustice are every bit as timely today.” — Christian Science Monitor
"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.” — Publishers Weekly
“National Book Award winner Erdrich once again calls upon her considerable storytelling skills to elucidate the struggles of generations of Native people to retain their cultural identity and their connection to the land.” — Library Journal, Starred Review
“A spellbinding, reverent, and resplendent drama…A work of distinct luminosity…Through the personalities and predicaments of her many charismatic characters, and through rapturous descriptions of winter landscapes and steaming meals, sustaining humor and spiritual visitations, Erdrich traces the indelible traumas of racism and sexual violence and celebrates the vitality and depth of Chippewa life…Erdrich at her radiant best.” — Booklist (starred review)
“In this kaleidoscopic story, the efforts of Native Americans to save their lands from being taken away by the U.S. government in the early 1950s come intimately, vividly to life…A knowing, loving evocation of people trying to survive with their personalities and traditions intact.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The Night Watchman is above all a story of resilience…It is a story in which magic and harsh realities collide in a breathtaking, but ultimately satisfying way. Like those ancestors who linger in the shadows of the pages, the characters Erdrich has created will remain with the reader long after the book is closed.” — New York Journal of Books
“This clever, artful and compelling novel tells an important story, one to open our hearts and minds. If you’re looking for a book that is smart and discussable, tender and painful, riveting and elegant, you’ll find it in THE NIGHT WATCHMAN.” — BookReporter.com
“Erdrich has chosen a story that is near to her heart, and it shines through on every page…The connection between Erdrich’s characters and the natural world is unbreakable, and some of her most evocative passages are dedicated to this relationship.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
About the Author
Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is the author of many novels as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel The Round House won the National Book Award for Fiction. Love Medicine and LaRose received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore. Her most recent book, The Night Watchman, won the Pulitzer Prize. A ghost lives in her creaky old house.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product details
- Publisher : Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (March 23, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062671197
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062671196
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.06 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Native American Literature (Books)
- #28 in Cultural Heritage Fiction
- #286 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of American novelists. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She is the author of many novels, the first of which, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the last of which, The Round House, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012. She lives in Minnesota.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
In the early part of this tale, readers will come upon a seemingly innocuous mention of Thomas Wazhashk’s family quilt. Immediately thereafter, the wonder of many lifetimes flows out as one of the most inspiringly beautiful passages I have ever read in my 69 years on this planet. Then, of course, just as when I read The Round House many years ago, Louise Erdrich follows with so many equally powerful passages that remind us why her books linger in the heart and mind for so long.
Instead it mostly focuses on the struggles of a young Native American woman. Can she find her lost sister, what is her romantic future, what to do with her deadbeat father, etc.
Through these interwoven narratives, Erorich breathes life into an Indian reservation in the post war era. It’s not an idealized image: poverty, violence and alcoholism do run rife throughout the text.
But it is a proud community conscious of a tradition and culture that long predates the European settlement.
And this is where the text is most impressive. In terse and uncomplicated prose, the story unfolds as if the imagined universe of the tribe is real. Just as Christian literature may cast angels and demons as characters, The Night Watchman makes the spirits, mythologies and shamanism not just literary ornaments but key drivers of the story. Look, for example, to the characters’ participation in the tribe’s creation myth, the presence of benign and malignant ghosts and the way shamanism is able to reveal key plot elements.
Given the extent to which cultural genocide has been perpetrated against Indian heritage, this is a much needed act of preservation. In some ways, The Night Watchman continues the effort of the characters to preserve their reservations; the book becomes a means by which Indian culture can be preserved and transmitted.
In short, crisp prose combined with a deep grounding of the book in a tribe’s collective imagination makes for a book worth reading.
One of the main characters, Thomas, who is the night watchman at a jewel bearing factory is based on the author’s grandfather. He is a loving, tireless man who cares deeply about the Chippewa Turtle Mountain people and his own family.
There are several stories going on in this novel but they are all part of the whole. We will watch as Thomas writes hundreds of letters to those in the government who might listen to his plea that the tribe be allowed to keep the little bit of land that they have. This once powerful tribe of hunters and gatherers was forced onto a small plot of land and had to learn how to farm in order to exist. They were given very little help from the government but even this was in danger of being taken away. They must form a committee and address Congress directly.
At the same time we learn about Thomas’s family, he deeply loves his wife Rose who works tirelessly to keep their family together, fed and clothed. His oldest daughter Vera left for the city, and hasn’t been heard from in a while. Patrice, his other daughter works at the jewel bearing plant where Thomas is a watchman. Her job is working on a type of production line, cutting precise holes into small jewel panels.
.
When Vera has been missing for a while Patrice saves up her money and goes to the city to find her. What happens to her there is eye opening as well as discouraging. We come back to that story later in the novel.
Thomas’s father, Bibon, lives with them, he is quite old but is filled with wisdom and inner strength. He will help Thomas in his quest to speak in front of Congress on behalf of his tribe.
“Make the Washington D.C.’s understand. We just started getting on our feet. Getting so we have some coins to jingle. Making farms. Becoming famous in school like you. All that will suffer. It will be wiped out.. . ..They sent us their tuberculosis. It is taking us down. We don’t have money to go to their hospitals. It was their promise to exchange these things for our land. “Long as the grass grows and the rivers flow.”
Scattered throughout the book there are references to Indian folklore and some magical passages which are beautiful and thought provoking.
The older generation has struggled with efforts to completely change their way of life. The younger generation still looks up to the elders but also wants what they see on TV and magazines, cute clothes, nice homes, cell phones, and to live in the city. They are often pulled in two different directions.
I don’t want to give away any more of this amazing story. Hopefully I have given you enough enticement to read this book. It is definitely one of my top books this year and is not to be missed. Ms. Erdrich will reward you with a great story, wonderful characters and a history of some of the terrible things that we have done to the American Indians. We virtually broke every treaty that we made with the Indians.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss
Top reviews from other countries

I stuck with it to the end, but didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as her previous work.

It shows life among the Chippewa Native Americans in 1953 when a senator is attempting to break the conditions of the treaty apportioning their reservation to the Chippewa. There are great characters here, some based on relatives of the author. There's lots of the lore and superstitions used by the tribe as they gradually acquire education. This is a well-plotted and well-written novel. Without being in any way maudlin, this saga arouses great sympathy for these utterly disadvantaged people.

Thomas is a nightwatchman at the local jewel bearing plant. He is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Thomas gets wind of some forthcoming legislation, where the dry and difficult text amounts to an attempt to terminate the tribe’s rights (previously granted in perpetuity by the US Govt) to maintain the lands on their reservation. Instead the Bill seeks to disperse the tribe to the cities and to forego the rights which their ancestors fought for.
Patrice (don’t call her Pixie) also works at the plant, along with her pals Valentine, Betty and Doris. Patrice’s sister Vera has already been lured to the city and has gone missing. Patrice makes it her mission to find her.
Wood Mountain is a boxer, trained by Barnes, the local maths teacher. Both have eyes for Patrice. Both are thoroughly good people and are willing to do anything to help the causes of Thomas and Patrice.
So we learn about a host of characters within the community. Anchored by Thomas and his impending trip to Washington and Patrice and her family issues. This is a book of warmth, community and facing up to a significant enemy. The prose is wonderful and remains understated throughout. I (sadly) knew little about the state land grabs of native Americans and I am therefore grateful to have both read and hugely enjoyed The Night Watchman.
With thanks to Little Brown (Corsair) and Netgalley for an ARC

