Larose by Louise Erdrich

When a boy is accidentally killed on a North Dakota reservation, the family of the shooter undertakes a drastic attempt at redemption. The fraught but permanent tie between the families sparks questions of trust, loyalty, justice, and memory. As in life, there are no concrete answers, and Erdrich does not attempt to prettify that which life makes messy. Her prose, as ever, is unrelentingly affecting; the agonies, hopes, and longings of these characters become the reader’s own. LaRose traces its characters’ paths as they cross back and forth between old tradition and modernity, the spirit world and tangible experience, reconciliation and grief. - Julia