We Survived the Night

An Indigenous Reckoning

Julian Brave NoiseCat

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782839170
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

WINNER OF THE TADEUSZ BRADECKI PRIZE

A SERVICE95 BOOKCLUB HYPE READ + HARPERS BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF AUTUMN 2025

'Extraordinary' ROXANE GAY
'Astonishing' FRANCIS SPUFFORD
'A powerful, beautiful, wrenching masterpiece' REBECCA SOLNIT
'The book I've been waiting my whole life to read' TOMMY ORANGE

An unforgettable father-son story and portrait of Indigenous North America, announcing a major new talent


"In my people's language, we greet each other each morning by saying "Tsecwínucw-k: 'You survived the night"'

One dark night, a new-born is discovered dumped inside a waste incinerator. The boy, rescued from death, grows into a man who will in turn abandon his own children, including his first-born son Julian Brave NoiseCat.

Behind this father-son story lies an even darker history of abuse, colonialism and vicious attempts to erase North America's First Peoples from their land. Told in the style of a 'Coyote Story', a legend of the trickster forefather of NoiseCat's people, We Survived the Night brings a vanishing artform back to life in this dazzling account of contemporary Indigenous North America. Braiding reportage with intimate experience, history with mythology, NoiseCat grapples with trauma that cascades across generations to uncover truths about himself, his family and his people - how they survived and how, through vital political, environmental and cultural movements, they are coming back.

An inventive, illuminating and moving narrative from one of the most compelling artists at work today, We Survived the Night is both reconciliation and celebration of Indigenous pain, hope and resurgence - and their power to shape a collective future.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Partial Family Tree
• Maps
• In the Beginning
• The First Day: Coyote and His Son
• The Second Day: Coyote Steals the Salmon
• The Third Day: Coyote Comes Back
• The Fourth Day
• A Note on Coyote Stories
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Sources
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography