Come gather around the campfire. I want to tell you the story of two families, a tragedy, friendship, and redemption.

“Where the reservation boundary invisibly bisected a stand of deep brush, Landreaux waited. He had kept track of the buck all summer, waiting to take it, fat, until just after the corn was harvested. Landreaux had a perfect shot. He took it with fluid confidence. When the buck popped away he realized he’d hit something else. Only when he walked forth to investigate and looked down did he understand that he had killed his neighbor’s son.”

And so begins Erdrich’s amazing and moving story. Faced with an unbearable burden of anguish, loss, and guilt, Landreaux looks to his Indian forebears for wisdom and decides that he will give his own son, LaRose, to the parents of the dead child. The fate of the child LaRose and his two families on the advent of the millenial year is played out memorably and movingly in the book.

Ultimately, the story asks, “Can a person do the worst possible thing and still be loved? Erdrich’s answer is a resounding…well, you’ll have to read the book to find out