As Erdrich explains in an afterword, tribal governments have been prohibited since 1978 from prosecuting non-Natives who commit crimes on their land. Joe suspects a non-Native man is to blame for the crime, and that he took Geraldine (a Native American) somewhere near the sacred ceremonial structure that gives the novel its title. Joe and his father, Bazil, know that the question of who committed the savage act against his mother, Geraldine, is as important to solving the mystery and taking action as the question of where the violence took place. Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House (Harper, 2012) 'opens out to become a detective story and a coming-of-age story, a story about how Joe is initiated into the sadnesses and disillusionments of grown-up life and the somber realities of his people's history' ( The New York Times). As Joe, now older, looks back on that time of anger and confusion, we come to understand how a young boy might view the events and decide to take matters into his own hands. Joe and his father, a tribal judge, don't know how to help her recover, nor can Joe's father untangle the web of jurisdictional legalities to bring the perpetrator to justice. In the weeks following the attack, his mother mostly refuses to eat and won't leave her bedroom. Joe Coutts is 13 years old in 1988, living a carefree life on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, when his family is shattered by a brutal attack against his mother that leaves her a shell of her former self.

If we are safe, our country is safer.' - Louise Erdrich in The New York Times

'If our hearts are on the ground, our country has failed us all. How tough those roots had clung.' -from The Round House 'Always I kept going back to the day I dug the trees out of the foundation of our house. 'This novel will have you reading at warp speed to see what happens next' ( Star Tribune).

'A preeminent tale in an essential American saga' ( Booklist, starred review). 'Erdrich threads a gripping mystery and multilayered portrait of a community through a deeply affecting coming-of-age novel' ( O, The Oprah Magazine). 'While Erdrich is known as a brilliant chronicler of the American Indian experience,' writes Reader's Digest, 'her insights into our family, community, and spiritual lives transcend any category.' Erdrich's 14th novel, The Round House (Harper, 2012), tells the suspenseful tale of a 13-year-old boy's investigation and desire for revenge following a brutal attack on his mother that leaves his father, a tribal judge, helpless in his pursuit to bring the perpetrator to justice.

This title is no longer available for programming after the 2021-2022 grant year.Īward-winning author and Minnesota bookstore owner Louise Erdrich hails from North Dakota and is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

The round house louise