The Night Watchman

"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
"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 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
"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
"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
"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)
"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
"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'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
"One of the most arresting visions of America in one of its most neglected corners, a tableau on par with Faulkner." - Chicago Tribune on LaRose
"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
"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
"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)