The Round House American Classics Edition - (HarperCollins American Classics) by Louise Erdrich (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels - Winner of the National Book Award

"Deeply moving, this novel ranks among Erdrich's best work, and it is impossible to forget." -- USA Today

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, HarperCollins is proud to present this library of American classics drawn from our storied catalog. The Round House, by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich, is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that forever transforms his family.

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 because 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, 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, but is only the beginning.

A page-turning masterpiece from one of the most revered novelists of our time, The Round House is at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.

Review Quotes

"Erdrich skillfully makes Joe's coming-of-age both universal and specific...the story is also ripe with detail about reservation life, and with her rich cast of characters, Erdrich provides flavor, humor and depth." - Library Journal, 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
"A sweeping, suspenseful outing from this prizewinning, generation-spanning chronicler of her Native American people, the Ojibwe of the northern plains...a sumptuous tale." - Elle
"Moving, complex, and surprisingly uplifting. . . likely to be dubbed the Native American To Kill a Mockingbird." - Parade
"The story pulses with urgency as she [Erdrich] probes the moral and legal ramifications of a terrible act of violence." - Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Riveting. . . . One of Erdrich's most suspenseful novels. . . . It vividly portrays both the deep tragedy and crazy comedy of life." - BookPage
"The Round House will inevitably draw comparisons to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, but Joe is no Scout Finch-like observer. He's an older, more involved participant, shaped by his culture and influenced by ideas of justice from the warriors of Ojibwe legend." - Kansas City Star
"While Erdrich is known as a brilliant chronicler of the American Indian experience, her insights into our family, community, and spiritual lives transcend any category." - Reader's Digest
"The novel showcases her [Erdrich's] extraordinary ability to delineate the ties of love, resentment, need, duty and sympathy that bind families together...[a] powerful novel." - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"Erdrich has given us a multitude of narrative voices and stories. Never before has she given us a novel with a single narrative voice so smart, rich and full of surprises as she has in The Round House. . . and, I would argue, her best so far." - NPR's All Thing's Considered
"Haunting...a bittersweet coming-of-age tale...tender but unsentimental and buoyed by subtle wit" - People
"Joe may be one of Erdrich's best-drawn characters; he's conflicted, feisty one moment, scared and disappointed the next. The Round House will inevitably draw comparisons to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird." - Miami Herald
"Louise Erdrich's prose is spare, precise, smooth as polished stone. Her books are rich with literary muscle." - Austin American-Statesman
"The story draws the reader unstoppably page by page." - Seattle Times
"A riveting mystery and a moving coming-of-age story." - Columbia Dispatch
"Filled with stunning and poetic language, this new novel ranks among Erdrich's best work." - Martha Stewart Living
"Erdrich's bittersweet contemplation of love and friendship, morality and generativity...result in a tender, tough coming-of-age tale." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A powerful human story. . . .By boring deeply into one person's darkest episode, Erdrich hits the bedrock truth about a whole community." - New York Times Book Review
"Each new Erdrich novel adds new layers of pathos and comedy, earthiness and spiritual questing, to her priceless multigenerational drama. THE ROUND HOUSE is one of her best--concentrated, suspenseful, and morally profound." - Boston Globe