One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a
reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the
crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized
and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to
the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old
son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed.
He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed
and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe
finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for
which he is ill prepared.
While his father, who is
a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation
that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the
official investigation and sets out with his trusted
friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his
own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a
sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this
is only the beginning.
Written with undeniable
urgency, and illuminating the harsh realities of
contemporary life in a community where Ojibwe and white live
uneasily together, The Round House is a brilliant and
entertaining novel, a masterpiece of literary fiction.
Louise Erdrich embraces tragedy, the comic, a spirit world
very much present in the lives of her all-too-human
characters, and a tale of injustice that is, unfortunately,
an authentic reflection of what happens in our own world today.
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