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  • The Pipelayer by Forrest Lonefight book cover
  • The Pipelayer by Forrest Lonefight book cover
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The Pipelayer

by Forrest Lonefight

A trench opens onto a community’s past

$15.83 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A trench opens onto a community’s past

Set across two Fridays—one in August 2024 and another in May 1989—the novel connects Gaston Johnson’s work as a pipelayer in Iowa with a discovery at the Fox Tribal Settlement. Gaston, a millennial descendant of the Fox Tribe who is not yet enrolled, takes a job that brings him to a place where he has long felt he does not belong. The discovery introduces a woman whose story reaches back 35 years and has affected the wider community. Construction work, Gaston’s drinking problem, tribal connection and questions of belonging frame a narrative that moves between these two dates.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in contemporary fiction with a Native American subject focus.
  • Readers who enjoy stories linking a present-day discovery to events from an earlier period.
  • Readers interested in community histories and questions of belonging.

Themes

Tribal connection and belongingCommunity historyConstruction workAlcohol misuse

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

One Friday in August: 2024. Gaston "The NDN Pipelayer" Johnson, is a millennial descendant of the Fox Tribe in Te Ma, Iowa. "Not enrolled yet..." He works for Price Plumbing: a full-service contractor for indoor & outdoor plumbing. He is the dirty guy in the trench, risking life & limb to install storm, sewer, & water main pipes all over the state.

 

He also has a huge drinking problem; such is the usual case for a construction worker of his ilk. But he accepts a job over a drink-or-five with his strange new boss, Mike Pankow, a Pipelayer lifer, that takes him back to the Fox Tribal Settlement, a place where Gaston never belonged.

 

On that fateful dig, under the oppressive August heat, he discovers "something else...Someone."

 

His life is changed forever, and that's just the beginning of the story, as that "Someone" has a story of her own to tell that has affected an entire community for 35 years.

 

Enter: One Friday in May: 1989. "Have you heard about M?"

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