2012 book 133

Louise Erdrich's The Round House
Louise Erdrich is a writer who, for me, can almost do no wrong. I think I love all of her books, and her latest is no exception (honestly, I think she's getting better and better, which is amazing since she apparently was undergoing treatment for breast cancer while writing this). I'm not sure if it's because the central character is a 13-year-old boy who likes Star Trek: TNG or the narrative voice, but this reminded me at times of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (high praise). Anyway, this book is about what happens when a boy's mother is brutally attacked, and how their family tries to recover from the traumatic event. And it's about friendships, cultural traditions, religion, and love. It's set on the same reservation as a lot of Erdrich's other books (Nanapush is briefly featured) but I think these characters are new. None of that is really relevant, but I thought I'd lay it out for fellow Erdrich fans. For the rest of you, her books are great, and this one especially is a stellar work worth reading. A.

ETA: This book is actually kind of a continuation of the story in A Plague of Doves, according to some internet research (I honestly almost went to the library to check out a book that's a dictionary of Erdrich's characters, b/c I recognized some of the names but couldn't remember which books they were from).

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An e-galley was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in October.