The Rope Catcher

About the Book

It is April of 1942, and twenty-eight-year-old Jimmie Goodluck leads an aimless existence on the Navajo reservation, where he knows only poverty, prejudice, and lack of opportunity. Everything changes when he hears a US Marine Corps recruitment message on the radio. Without a second thought, Jimmie heads out toward what he hopes will be a new and meaningful life.

As a marine recruit, Jimmie becomes a code talker. He and his small, all-Navajo platoon develop a highly-classified code using the Navajo language—the only code in World War II the enemy cannot break. For the first time ever, Jimmie experiences equality, respect, and even admiration—everything he’s dreamed about all his life. But it is only when he returns home four years later that he discovers the devastating truth about what can happen after your dreams come true.

Hope, disillusionment, and redemption line Jimmie’s journey of self-discovery as he immerses himself in a world war and in the turbulent changes that sweep across the Navajo reservation—forever changing his own destiny.

About the Author

Larry Stillman, a lifelong writer, is the award-winning author of A Match Made in Hell: The Jewish Boy and the Polish Outlaw who Defied the Nazis. He travels extensively to the Southwest and will donate a portion of profits from the sale of The Rope Catcher to the Museum Project of the Navajo Code Talkers Foundation.