Which novel by Louise Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2021?

Which novel by Louise Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2021? The Night Watchman won the award.

Published in 2020, the novel is set largely in 1950s North Dakota and follows members of a Chippewa community confronting a proposed federal policy of termination. That policy threatened to end the United States’ recognition of tribal sovereignty and accelerate the loss of Native land and legal protections.

The story draws on the life of Erdrich’s grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, who worked as a night watchman and traveled to Washington, D.C., to oppose the legislation. Erdrich combines this historical struggle with multiple character perspectives, family relationships, humor, romance, grief, and community life.

A common mix-up is with Erdrich’s earlier novels The Plague of Doves, a 2009 Pulitzer finalist, and The Round House, which won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012. Love Medicine, her celebrated 1984 debut novel, also explores interconnected Native families but did not win the Pulitzer.