The Game of Silence (by Louise Erdrich)

Omakayas has plenty to deal with: there are the everyday survival tasks of gathering and preparing food and creating shelter and clothing; an upcoming spiritual quest which she dreads; and dealing with her brother Pinch, a prankster who has fallen in with two of the tribal hotheads.

This second in a planned nine-book series covering 100 years in the life of Omakayas and her descendants is much like its predecessor: While there is a marginal plot, it's primarily a portrait of Ojibwe life in the mid-19th century. Those looking for an angry and violent meditation on the inhumanity of the European settlers' treatment of the natives won't find it here: There are no mean people or bad guys, beyond the distant and disembodied government that is making them move. The Indians and settlers live side-by-side in peace and friendliness, if not mutual comprehension.

Louise Erdrich writes in a flowing, seamless style, and liberally salts her story with Ojibwe words (explained in a glossary, though most can be inferred from context). An Ojibwe herself, she writes with the confidence and authority of an insider.