English language
Published Dec. 10, 2017 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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 understands he’s hit something else. When he staggers closer, he sees he has killed his neighbor’s five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.
The youngest child of his best friend, Pete Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. Horrified at what he’s done, the recovered alcoholic turns to tradition—the sweat lodge—for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola.
LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. Gradually he is allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches’ own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the …
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 understands he’s hit something else. When he staggers closer, he sees he has killed his neighbor’s five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.
The youngest child of his best friend, Pete Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. Horrified at what he’s done, the recovered alcoholic turns to tradition—the sweat lodge—for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola.
LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. Gradually he is allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches’ own. 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, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole.
In a sense the story has pieces of an epic in that it spans generations, but the flashbacks are brief. Most of the story takes place in modern times with modern people.
What makes the book feel epic is the range of emotions that come out through the mundane, the terrible and the purpose of every-day life on the reservation.
Another amazing book by Louise Erdrich. Really, just go read anything by her.
