’The power of her writing lies in its directness; in the clear access she has to her characters’ thoughts and feelings, and her ability to translate these feelings into words that are both poetic and unforced...a powerful American voice.’

--ERICA WAGNER, The Times

’Erdrich’s consummate skill has led to frequent comparisons with the Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison ... and has established her chosen ground as one of the most fertile fictive territories in contemporary American letters.’

--Scotsman

Pluto, North Dakota, is a town on the verge of extinction. Here, everybody is connected - by love or friendship, by blood, and, most importantly, by the burden of a shared history.

Growing up on the nearby reservation is Evelina Harp, witty and ambitious, and prone to falling hopelessly in love. Listening to her grandfather’s tales, she learns ofa horrific crime that has marked both Ojibwe and whites. Nobody understands the weight of that crime better than Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, who keeps watch over Pluto’s inhabitants and recounts their lives with compassion and rare insight.

In distinct and winning voices, Erdrich’s characters unravel the stories of different generations and families in this powerful and moving portrait of the complex allegiances, passions and drama of a haunting land and its all-too-human people.