The Round House

By Louise Erdrich,

Book cover of The Round House

Book description

Winner of the National Book Award • Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book

From one of the most revered novelists of our time, an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

5 authors picked The Round House as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This gripping novel tells a story that reveals the deep and complex effects of gender-based violence on generations of a family.

I found it fascinating and unusual to consider an adolescent boy's reaction to gender-based violence another male committed against his mother.  The book wraps themes of justice, discrimination, and Native American traditions around a brilliant exploration of how trauma ripples through a whole community and explores what it takes for humans to heal.

Erdich's insights into the complexity of life on a North Dakotan reservation are provocative, educational, and lyrically written, taking us to a place not many outsiders…

The Round House by Anishinaabe novelist Louise Erdrich, which won the National Book Award in 2012, makes it clear why federal Indian law cannot deliver justice to Indian country.

It does this skillfully by constructing a plot in which rape of and murder by a white man of Native women on an Ojibway reservation impacts the lives of a tribal judge, his wife (the victim of the rape), and their 13yr. old son, who narrates the story as an adult who has become a tribal judge himself.

I value this book because it is both didactic (it teaches one about…

I had not read Louise Erdrich in many years when I picked up this book, but I was especially interested as it addresses violence against Indigenous women, an all-too-common reality rarely reported in the mainstream. The author makes a fascinating choice: to tell the story from the perspective of the victim’s thirteen-year-old son. On the reservation, where intersecting law and law enforcement—federal, state, and tribal—only leads to massive injustice, the boy takes matters into his own hands, as investigator, prosecutor, and judge. Erdrich goes there for a shocking climax, and perhaps an even more riveting denouement. A visionary examination…

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

Book cover of Let Evening Come

Yvonne Osborne Author Of Let Evening Come

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a family farm surrounded by larger vegetable and dairy operations that used migrant labor. From an early age, my siblings and I were acquainted with the children of these workers, children whom we shared a school desk with one day and were gone the next. On summer vacations, our parents hauled us around in a station wagon with a popup camper, which they parked in out-of-the-way hayfields and on mountainous plateaus, shunning, much to our chagrin, normal campgrounds, and swimming pools. Thus, I grew up exposed to different cultures and environments. My writing reflects my parents’ curiosity, love of books and travel, and devotion to the natural world. 

Yvonne's book list on immersive coming-of-age fiction with characters struggling to find themselves amidst the isolation and bigotry in Indigenous, rural, and minority communities

What is my book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through young adulthood. Miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are displaced from their land by multinational energy companies. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie’s aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.

Stefan promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his story, has grown sympathetic to his cause and complicit in his pushback against prejudiced accusations. Their mutual attraction is stymied when Stefan’s older brother, Joachim, who stayed behind, becomes embroiled in the resistance, and Stefan is compelled to return to Canada. Sadie, concerned for his safety, impulsively follows on a trajectory doomed by cultural misunderstanding and oncoming winter.

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

What is this book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through the pitfalls of young adulthood.
Hundreds of miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are forced off their land by multinational energy companies and flawed treaties. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie's aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.
Stefan, whose own father died in prison while on a hunger strike, promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his…


Louise Erdrich creates an aura of spiritual powers within the sacred space that is the Round House, place of worship for the Ojibwe. Here, thirteen-year-old Joe finds the courage, wisdom, and strength to set out on a path to seek justice for his mother and redemption for himself. The story is a quest for understanding within the traumatic lives and feeling of hopelessness that surround the boy and his people, the focus is a mystery he is driven to solve. Louise’s writing establishes a sense of mysticism and deep timelessness that emanates from the Round House and wisps throughout the…

Winner of the National Book Award, this book is a searing indictment of how white America’s abuse of Indigenous People continues into the present day. When a white man attacks Geraldine Coutts on the reservation, the law can do nothing. The tribal police have no power over outsiders, and white law does not apply on the rez. Geraldine’s thirteen-year-old son, Joe, joins his friends to investigate the attack and seek justice. His ultimate decision feels both surprising and inevitable, as the best endings do. Erdrich is one of my favorite writers, and in this book, she is at the height…

Want books like The Round House?

Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Round House.

Browse books like The Round House

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in North Dakota, the Ojibwe, and presidential biography?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about North Dakota, the Ojibwe, and presidential biography.

North Dakota Explore 16 books about North Dakota
The Ojibwe Explore 34 books about the Ojibwe
Presidential Biography Explore 18 books about presidential biography