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