This is an intricate and kaleidoscopic tapestry of a tale that opens in the wake of a brutal act of senseless violence. A family has been murdered in their home by an unnamed gunman who leaves behind a single survivor - a seven month old baby. The following chapters cover the events that occur in the small North Dakota reservation town over the next few decades, told through the voices of a number of different narrators, and it isn't until the end that we discover the identities of the family and their murderer. But this isn't a crime novel or murder mystery, and the killing of the family isn't central to the plot; rather, it's a catalyst that set off another violence act of senseless murder, and as the years pass, we see how intricately linked everyone is in this town as the descendants of the murderers and the murdered weave in and out of each other's lives. Louise Erdrich has such a gift for crafting these gorgeous, multilayered passages that are so brilliantly evocative and that often waver between haunting and hilarious.