73 pages • 2 hours read
The Sentence
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021
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Introduction
Teacher Introduction
The Sentence
- Genre: Fiction; mystery
- Originally Published: 2021
- Reading Level/Interest: College/adult
- Structure/Length: 18 chapters; approximately 416 pages; approximately 11 hours, 49 minutes on audio
- Protagonist/Central Conflict: In The Sentence, Louise Erdrich explores a haunting tale set in a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis. Flora, the store’s most annoying customer, dies on All Souls’ Day in 2019 but refuses to leave the store. Tookie, a woman who has found solace in books after a period of incarceration, must unravel the mystery of this haunting while also navigating a year of reckoning.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Hauntings; racism against Black and Indigenous Americans; inappropriate handling of corpses; illicit drug use; isolation; pandemic challenges
Louise Erdrich, Author
- Bio: Born June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota; German American and Ojibwe heritage; grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota; graduated from Dartmouth College (BA, 1976) and Johns Hopkins University (MA, 1979); collaborated with writer and anthropologist Michael Dorris; has authored several best-selling novels; recipient of Pulitzer Prize for The Night Watchman (2020); owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis; advocate for social justice causes
- Other Works: Love Medicine (1984); The Plague of Doves (2008); The Round House (2012)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:
- The Unpredictability of Life
- The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity
- The Power of Love as Redemption
