“A bleak and damning story of government neglect of Indigenous communities.”
—Kirkus Reviews
MONEY BOSS
NOW AVAILABLE
In 1976, John Rager, the newly arrived Indian Affairs Grayson District commerce officer lives alone in a rooming house with a deep secret. He soon discovers that many other people within the agency have secrets.
What changes everything is the arrival of a Catholic nun’s letter sent to the Ontario Indian Affairs regional director general and copied to the district manager that outlines the horrors in one of the district fly-in villages - and the destructive role of Indian Affairs.
How Rager formulates a plan with the help of the now ex-Catholic nun, Marie Brunelle, to reveal these secrets, constitutes the story of a man’s struggle to seek redemption and bring justice to a long neglected and forgotten people.
Money Boss is set within the vast region of northwestern Ontario above the rail line – a region of lakes, rivers, creeks, and bogs within the green of the coniferous forest, bush, and eskers – it is one of the most remote and isolated regions of Canada.
REVIEWS
What readers are saying
"...As the story goes on, Sanderson presents a supporting cast of deplorable characters whose repugnance is only sharpened by the harrowing realization that similar people exist in the real world. Most of the Indigenous characters stay on the story’s fringes and are subject to the worst circumstances, including rapes, beatings, abject poverty, and alcoholism. Overall, Sanderson’s work feels more like a parable than a novel, using dialogue and third-person narration mainly to illustrate aspects Canadian history and corruption, with pages-long monologues about societal issues. The book is short, and this results in a relative lack of character development, but the government workers’ lack of dimensionality only emphasizes Sanderson’s point about their dangerous apathy: 'Make promises, do as little as possible, just talk and talk and talk until everyone gives up and walks away.'
A bleak and damning story of government neglect of Indigenous communities."
— Kirkus Reviews