Erdrich returns to Dakota Indian reservation in new novel
Set on a reservation in North Dakota, the 13-year-old protagonist and son of a reservation judge, Joe Coutts, sees his innocent childhood come to an end when his mother Geraldine comes home from an errand bloody and mutely terrified. The plot slowly unfolds as Joe's mother, the victim of a brutal rape and attempted double murder, takes to her bed and refuses to identify her attacker, who is assumed to be white.