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A taut, exquisitely rendered story exploring the repercussions of a woman's decision to hide her Métis identity while living in a small, predominantly white prairie town in the 1940s, for readers of The Berry Pickers, Tommy Orange, and The Vanishing Half.
Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946.
Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde—never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail.
But one morning, everything changes.
Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her.
Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin.
And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice—one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever.
This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else—and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth. Gripping, wrenching, and utterly immersive, Wild People Quiet is a stunning achievement by a remarkable literary talent.
"Absolutely captivating! From the first page Tara Gereaux's Wild People Quiet held me spellbound. The novel follows the story of Florence who is born to a Métis family around the turn of the century, but who is light-skinned enough to pass as white. She must make a choice between the family she loves and the world that will accept her only if she denies them. Like the beading does for Florence, this is a story that leads to reconnection and healing—uncovering an often overlooked time in Métis history. This book is a gift." —Michelle Porter, bestselling author of A Grandmother Begins the Story
"Tara Gereaux's Wild People Quiet is a story as exquisite and beautiful as the beadwork detailed in its pages. A triumph." —Helen Humphreys, author of Followed by the Lark
This information about Wild People Quiet was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Tara Gereaux is the author of Saltus, which was shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Novel Award and three Saskatchewan Book Awards; and Size of a Fist, a teen novella, which was also shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Tara holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and has worked as a writer and story editor for film and television. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and lives in Regina on Treaty 4 territory and the homeland of the Métis.
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