Laughing Boy

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize“A romantic idyll played out in the rhythms and meanings of a vanished Navajo world. —Denver PostAn enduring American classic Oliver La Farge's award-winning first novel captures the essence of the Southwest in the early twentieth century.Laughing Boy is a model member of his tribe. Raised in old traditions skilled in silver work and known for his prowess in the wild horse races he does the Navajos of T’o Tlakai proud. But times are changing. It is 1914 and the first car has just driven into their country. Then Laughing Boy meets Slim Girl—and despite her “American” education and the warnings of his family he gives in to desire and marries her.As Laughing Boy and Slim Girl settle away from traditional villages—their different upbringings clashing within both their relationship and the ever-encroaching culture around them—each of their worlds are thrown into a heart-wrenching turmoil of love honor hope and heritage.“Compelling in its strength and simplicity and its fidelity to the deepest impulses of human nature” Laughing Boy is an unprecedented look at both the Navajo culture and the enduring legacy of tradition and loss that all Americans share (New York Times).