LaRose: A Novel [B0400]

2016 HCDJ. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. Finalist for the 2017 PEN Faulkner Award. In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture. North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence-but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition-the sweat lodge-for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give their own son, LaRose, to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them. LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal. But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole. Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America's most distinguished literary masters.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This is a great yarn about the struggles native peoples have trying to live in two worlds. Very enjoyable to read."; "A tale of two interconnected families, the history that unites and divides them, and their community. This novel is more complex than its story suggests, woven with myth and mysticism and a truly masterful use of shifting POV. Erdrich is a lovely writer, fully at her height here."