Ragged Company

Ragged Company (2008) is a novel penned by Richard Wagamese. The story follows four unhoused people and their unlikely friendship with a retired journalist, whose shared love of movies brings them all together. When one of them finds a lottery ticket and wins big, all of their lives change forever.

Richard Wagamese, an Indigenous writer from Canada, has received numerous awards, such as the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize (2013) and the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Matt Cohen Award (2015). His writing often highlights issues faced by Indigenous communities in Canada, and his own life experience greatly informs his work. Accordingly, in Ragged Company, Wagamese explores themes of home and friendship, history and storytelling, and fate and destiny.

This guide is based on the Doubleday Canada Kindle Edition.

Content Warning: The book describes suicide and substance use and addiction as well as sex work.

Plot Summary

Amelia “One For The Dead” One Sky, Mark “Digger” Haskett, Jonas “Timber” Hohnstein, and Richard Richard “Double Dick” Dumont, are four people without homes. Amelia’s brothers, parents, and eventually even her lover die of different causes over the years, and she begins living on the streets after experiencing alcohol misuse and sex work.