Article: Erdrich's new novel highlights her German-American heritage.

Byline: Mary Ann Grossmann

The young man on the cover of Louise Erdrich's new novel faces the camera with supreme self-confidence. He wears a white apron, and in his left hand he holds the symbol of his craft _ a steel on which he sharpened his knives.

That man is Erdrich's paternal grandfather, Ludwig, and she kept his picture on her office wall "as a talisman" while she wrote "The Master Butchers Singing Club."

"I've always loved this picture," Erdrich says of her grandfather's formal portrait, taken in Germany when he was about 17.

Erdrich is the award-winning author of eight novels about American Indians that are rooted in the ...

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