National Book Award Winner is a Win
After reading Kevin Powers’ THE YELLOW BIRDS, we weren’t sure that anything could top our 2012 reading list. While reading it, we were blown away by the language and sheer power of the story.
And then BAM.
Just like that Louise Erdrich was nominated alongside Kevin Powers for the National Book Award. When Erdrich’s THE ROUND HOUSE won out over Powers, Dave Eggers’ A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING and Junot Diaz’s THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER, our curiosities were peaked.
National Book Award Nominees in Fiction and Non-Fiction 2012
I happened to pick up a copy of THE ROUND HOUSE at my NYC holiday book club exchange (what a thrill to get an expensive hard cover copy for free) and began reading it on the subway home that night. Once the story began, I couldn’t put it down. THE ROUND HOUSE chronicles a boy and his family after his mother is attacked and brutally raped. In her trauma, she is unable to relive the details of her attack, which leaves the police, her husband Bazil, and her son Joe to embark on separate journeys to discover the identity of the attacker. Frustrated by the snail’s pace of the investigation, thirteen year old Joe gathers his three best friends and together they embark on a trail to find and exact revenge.
The New York Times reported that in Ms. Erdrich’s acceptance speech, “She said she wanted to acknowledge ‘the grace and endurance of native women.’ She added: ‘This is a book about a huge case of injustice ongoing on reservations. Thank you for giving it a wider audience.’”
Ms. Erdrich’s book has certainly gained a wide audience, and for it’s compelling character development and story telling, we henceforth will call her a true Literary Lady. Can’t wait to read more of her extraordinary fiction.
Amazing novel, one of the top on my top 2012 list. Above The Yellow Birds but below my top book, Richard Ford’s novel Canada, also narrated by a boy and his older self.
Haven’t read Canada yet and am intrigued by your recommendation! Absolutely loved The Round House so must find a copy of Ford’s newest and burrow in. Thanks for the suggestion!
The Round House is on my ever growing list, and she was spot on in her expectance speech. As an editor of Indian Country Today Media Network, the go to media outlet for Native American news, these stories are all too familiar. The rates of attack on Native women is awful. I believe we still have a copy of her book in the office that I’m going have to read. But definitely will buy it as well. Great write up of her book.
This is going on my to-read list right now!
I’ve got Round House in my house, ready to read. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the nudge.
But the editor in me is wondering if you really meant to use the word “piqued” instead of “peaked.”