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. She sobers up after she starts seeing “shadowed ones”—spirits of people who have passed away—and spends her life helping other unhoused people like herself.

The “shadowed ones” bring Digger, Timber, and Dick into her life. Digger used to be a wheelman, but is unable to work after an injury, and began drinking to cope with the physical and emotional pain. Timber, once a woodworker, had to sell everything he owned to pay for medical bills after his wife had an accident and incurred extensive injuries, including brain damage. She lost her memory, and the heartbreak led Timber to begin drinking, eventually leaving her and the only home he ever knew to live on the streets. Dick, whose father brewed moonshine, was introduced to alcohol as a young child, and has been drinking regularly since he was nine years old. As a young man, he accidentally killed his baby nephew while drunk one night and then left home to live on the streets.

When a cold front blows over the city, the four of them go to the movie theater to keep warm. They unexpectedly fall in love with the movies and begin going regularly even after the cold abates. They strike up an unlikely friendship with a man they meet there: Granite Harvey. Granite is a retired journalist but has a past as haunted as the others’: His wife and daughter died in a car crash, and his father died shortly after that, so he sold his family house and moved to the city.

Digger finds a lottery ticket one day that wins him $13.5 million and decides to split it with Amelia, Timber, and Dick. None of them have any identification, however, so Granite ropes in his lawyer, James Merton, and a woman who works at the lottery office, Margo Keane, to help the group get their money and adjust to their new lives. Overwhelmed by the changes, the three men go out drinking and partying the night after they get their money, and Dick almost dies, slipping into an alcohol induced coma. This prompts Digger to set a better example for the others.

The five buy a house and move in together. They continue watching movies, and over the course of time, Digger, Timber, Amelia, and Granite, reveal their histories to each other. Digger sets up a store where he repairs and sells old appliances. Timber journeys back home to his wife, and finds that she’s alive and much recovered but still doesn’t remember him. She has married again, and Timber makes peace with the situation after talking to her husband. He returns and begins carving again, like he used to.

The others worry about Dick, who is unable to settle into his new life or talk about his past. When a movie reminds him of his past, Dick runs away and begins to use both alcohol and drugs in excess to escape his trauma. He decides to visit Tucumcari and fulfill a childhood dream; he records his plans on tape to inform his friends of his whereabouts because he’s illiterate and can’t write. However, the next night, Dick dies of an accidental overdose in his hotel room.

His death deeply affects the group, especially Digger. He lashes out, picking fights with everyone, and accuses Granite of hanging around just for the money. Dick’s recording is discovered and stands as his last will and testament because he clearly expresses that he wants to bequeath specific parts of his winnings to each of his friends. As Digger distances himself from the group, the others organize a memorial service for Dick, and Granite writes a moving eulogy for the paper. The eulogy draws a large crowd of other unhoused people, as well as strangers, to the service. When Digger reads the column and sees the crowd, he understands the depth of Granite’s love and friendship with them and makes amends.

The group uses the money Dick leaves them to do what he wished for each of them: Digger sets up a Ferris wheel again, Timber opens a woodworking studio, and Granite buys back his family house. Amelia uses her money to open a shelter for unhoused women, which she eventually hands over to Margo, and goes back to living among other unhoused people to continue helping them.