'The Round House is an extraordinary, engrossing novel, which should live long in the memory.' Independent on Sunday

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 because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. As Geraldine slips into an abyss of solitude, young Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

While his father, 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 find some answers of his own.


The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece -- at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender novel of family, history, and culture by one of the most revered novelists of our time.

'Echoes of Stand By Me . . . A classic coming-of-age narrative.' Observer

'Fascinating.' The Times