Isaiah has felt ashamed and alone nearly all of his life. He earnestly wishes to break free from the chains that bind him: his tortured past, feeling unwanted and unwelcomed, an immensity of guilt, and the shadowy horrors of his own mind. Although those around him, his adoptive mother and war-torn comrades, wish to know Isaiah beyond and beneath his mask, he cannot even face the depths of himself for fear of the monster he believes waits there in the darkness. Upon This Waste is a historical fiction novel about Isaiah, a haunted youth facing the trenches and a prying companion in the final months of World War I. The narrative bounces back and forth between Europe's killing fields and his childhood on a Pacific Northwest Native American Reservation. There, Isaiah struggles to fit in with the tribe that has adopted him and refuses to reveal to them his mysterious past.