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 as 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, who is 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. And this is only the beginning
A great writer and a great story. I felt she was a bit fractioned at times in her storytelling. Going in one direction for a short while and then going off on a tangent, leading to another branch of the story and not returning to fully explain the original story line. Some interesting facts and history and the lives and culture of Native American (Indians) although, again, I felt the author went off on a tangent or in too much detail for the story to flow smoothly.
The ending was a "suck in your breath" moment that I did not see coming and while, a good ending somehow did not work fully for the flow of the story, for me.
Still a 4 out of 5 as it was a good enough read and led to a great book group discussion
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