Laughing Boy

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Laughing Boy is a skilled Navajo silversmith who believes deeply in the old ways—craft, ceremony, and harmony with the land. His life shifts when he meets Slim Girl, a beautiful and complex young woman who has lived far beyond the boundaries of Navajo tradition. Drawn together by love, the two attempt to build a life between two worlds: one rooted in heritage and community, the other shaped by modern influences and difficult past choices. As their relationship deepens, they must confront the tensions between identity, belonging, and the cost of crossing cultural lines. Oliver La Farge was an American novelist, anthropologist, and advocate for Native American rights. His writing was deeply influenced by his fieldwork and close relationships with Indigenous communities of the American Southwest. Laughing Boy, published in 1929, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and remains one of the most notable early literary portrayals of Navajo life and culture.