The Shorn and Numbered

The Shorn and the Numbered is a contemporary thriller rooted in the history of Indigenous boarding schools in the United States. These institutions were established under the stated goal of assimilation, but ultimately contributed to the attempted erasure of Indigenous cultures. Children, some as young as eight years old, were separated from their families and placed into a system designed to strip away their languages, cultures, names, and identities. The novel follows Ellie in the present day. After the death of her former teacher, she inherits a key. What it opens leads her into historical records documenting what happened inside these institutions, and into evidence that has been eliminated, concealed, or deliberately obscured. The historical system at the center of the novel is not fictional. The characters and thriller narrative are fiction, but the history they confront is not. The thriller is the vehicle through which that history is explored.