Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” has haunted readers for almost seven decades. Its narrative is simple: In a fictional town, an annual rite is held in which one of the citizens is murdered — by stoning. The townspeople approach the lottery with a chilling nonchalance. Betraying one of their own — in this case, a wife and mother named Tessie Hutchinson — is merely something that must be done to maintain the social order.