The Rifles (novel)

The Rifles
First edition cover
AuthorWilliam T. Vollmann
Cover artistJacket design by Daniel Rembert
Cover photograph by Ulli Stelttzer
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSeven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes
GenreLiterary fiction
PublisherViking Penguin
Publication date
February 24, 1994
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback and Hardcover)
Pages411 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN0-670-84856-5 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC28722824
813/.54 20
LC ClassPS3572.O395 R54 1994
Preceded byFathers and Crows 
Followed byArgall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith 

The Rifles is a 1994 novel by American writer William T. Vollmann. It is intended to be the sixth book in a planned seven-book cycle entitled Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes. As of 2015 five of the seven have been published, The Rifles being the third to reach print.

Unlike the other books in this series so far, The Rifles is not wholly a historical novel, as it primarily takes place in the early 1990s, although the storyline depicting the trials and challenges of modern Inuit life is tied to the ill-fated exploration of the Arctic region by Sir John Franklin in the mid-19th century. The novel also discusses the 1955 forced migration of Inuit from Inukjuak, Quebec to Resolute, Nunavut.