LAROSE

Having accidentally killed his neighbors’ young son, a man offers in exchange his own boy, LaRose. This ancient act of tribal justice entwines these already tragically connected families in unanticipated ways. The Ravich and Iron families are clearly as alive to Erdrich as the ghosts with whom the mystical LaRose communes. As narrator, Erdrich inhabits them—dark, light, comic, confused—with apparent effortlessness. She delivers with equal ease mythic stories, slapstick nursing home exchanges, teen angst, and all-consuming grief. She even gives a rousing volleyball play-by-play with significance well beyond the game on the court. To keep the emotions she, as author, has created, Erdrich, as narrator, digs deep. LAROSE is a winning story that will leave listeners cheering. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2016]