To Save the Man

"In To Save The Man, John Sayles has given us a harrowing story that not only deserves to be read but also reckoned with.” — Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

"Both tender and harrowing, “To Save a Man” once again demonstrates Sayles’s dogged commitment to unearthing the buried truths that contour the ground beneath our feet." — The Washington Post


"To Save The Man takes us inside the Carlisle School, the most famous of 19th century residential Indian schools, where piously confident white teachers ruled isolated Indian children with a regimented brutality wrapped in good intentions. With kaleidoscopic empathy, John Sayles takes us by turns into the minds of those teachers and of the students whose resistance to bewildering tyranny is both heartbreaking and magnificent. Historically accurate, devoid of sentimentality, beautifully written and structured, TO SAVE THE MAN is, hands down, the best book I've read in years." —Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow

“Set in 1890, the year of the Wounded Knee Massacre, John Sayles’s novel, To Save the Man, is a story of a culture taken. At the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, young Native Americans find themselves having to negotiate the demands of assimilation against the ways of life they’ve always known. A master storyteller, Sayles reminds us of the cost of history on the individual life. This blend of fact and invention makes for an unforgettable read.” —Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Bright Forever