This novel is at once unique and powerful and unforgettable. While this book may not appeal to everyone, what book or story does? It is overwhelmingly sad at times yet twinged with a ray of hope because the daughter who narrates the story loved her mother and had felt loved in return. Although this story may not be anything at all like a reader's life experience, the author manages to describe everything in such a way that you feel a viable part of the situation. This is a special coming-of-age story since it involves sisters making their way in life on a Minnesota Native American Reservation. What could be sadder than being a mother who loves her two daughters and gave them the prettiest names she could think of but can not afford to feed them? How does a parent struggling with poverty and alcohol abuse ever escape the cycle of destructive poverty? Is there no way to help families and keep them together at the same time? The intense emotions of 'In the Night of Memory' grab the reader immediately and never let go.