In 1872, dinosaur hunters become embroiled in a battle over the discovery of fossils in Northern Ontario as their excavation crews are driven mad by a bizarre and terrifying illness.

Over a hundred years later, Church and his family show signs of the same monstrous affliction. As he begins to unravel his family’s dark history, Church must race to protect the secrets buried deep in bones and blood.

Set in the fictional town of Sterling and Ghost Lake Reserve, Wrist is Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler’s debut novel. It is a companion volume to his 2020 collection of short stories, Ghost Lake.

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Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler is author of Wrist, an Indigenous monster story written from the monster’s perspective (Kegedonce Press) and co-editor of Bawaajigan – Stories of Power, a dream-themed anthology of Indigenous writers (Exile Editions). He is an artist and filmmaker who works in a variety of mediums including audio and video, and drawing and painting. Nathan is first-place winner of an Aboriginal Writing Challenge, and recipient of a Hnatyshyn Reveal award for literature, he has an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC), BFA in Integrated Media (OCAD), and BA in English Literature and Native Studies (Trent). His writing is published in various magazines, blogs, and anthologies. He is two-spirit, Jewish, Anishinaabe, and member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. Originally from Ontario, he currently resides in Vancouver.

“A thought-provoking, original and daring take on monsters, pop culture, religion, heritage, exploitation and what it means to be human. This unique debut novel challenges the reader to question stereotypes and assumptions and to think outside the box. It stays with you long after the last page.” — Deborah Vail, Prism Magazine

“Just as Wrist treats trauma in a complex and perceptive way, it develops multi-dimensional and utterly convincing characters. One risk in anything that falls partially within the bounds of genre fiction is flat, simplistic characters; Wrist entirely avoids this problem with its presentation of people as complicated palimpsests of their own and others’ histories. Wiindigo is layered onto human; Anglicized residential school names are layered over Indigenous names; trauma is sometimes covered over but never completely; and perhaps most memorably, larger cultural currents leave their stamps on individuals in ways that are realistic in that they are never fully explained.” — Amy Mitchell, The Rusty Toque