The Round House (a novel)

A friend passed this novel on to me. I'd never heard of it and had no idea what it was about. Within the first few pages it becomes clear it's initially about a violent sexual assault. I was not that ready for it and usually try to avoid reading stuff about trauma unless I'm like, ready for it. But this story is told from the perspective of the victim's son, which makes it once-removed. (Though thinking about mothers being raped is maybe a whole fresh layer of pain.) The language and perspective of a tweenage boy makes it manageable, at least. 

The premise is that this event happens within or adjacent to a Native American reservation property (which causes jurisdiction issues) and to a Native American woman in the late '80s. It's a bit of a whodunnit seated in the unfairness of reservation resources and legal limitations, paired with a young boy having to navigate a severely painful and unjust situation. 

I won't go into more detail since it's a whodunnit and I don't want to ruin that part of it (thought it's kind of obvious and you won't really be surprised). But it was engaging, felt realistic (except for the mythical stories parts) and as if you were wrapped in this world through the main protagonist's eyes. It was also information I hadn't yet heard about the "tangle of laws that hinder prosecution of rape cases on many reservations" but this book gets a little into the complexity and provides an Afterword on the situation.

I finished this one during a work trip, as Olivia really tried her hardest to deter my reading of it while I was home: