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Wild People Quiet: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 3 Mar 26A 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 Saturday night, without fail.
But one morning at the end of summer, 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.
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 Saturday night, without fail.
But one morning at the end of summer, 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.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
304 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 3, 2026
1 person is currently reading
886 people want to read
About the author
Tara Gereaux
4 books19 followersTara Gereaux’s debut novel, Saltus, was released in 2021. Her first book, a teen novella called Size of a Fist (Thistledown Press, 2015), was nominated for two 2016 Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her writing has been published in several literary magazines and has won awards, including the City of Regina Writing Award in 2016 and 2019.
After graduating with an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, Tara worked as a story editor and writer in film and television for ten years.
From the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan and of Métis and European heritage, Tara lived in Vancouver for nearly two decades before returning to her home on the prairie. She lives in Regina, SK.
After graduating with an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, Tara worked as a story editor and writer in film and television for ten years.
From the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan and of Métis and European heritage, Tara lived in Vancouver for nearly two decades before returning to her home on the prairie. She lives in Regina, SK.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 9, 2025
[Will post quote about Michif lives post publication]
A choice she makes in desperation to be free, Florence Campeau decides to become Florence Banks and slip out of her old life to become someone else.
For the past 11 years, Florence has been a secretary at Pratt’s Insurance and Real Estate in Torduvalle, Saskatchewan. She “blends in with everyone else”; nobody would know she’s one of ‘them’. Them, or half-breeds as the predominantly while Prairie community of 1940s Saskatchewan calls the Métis, are a mixed-race Indigenous people. They were not afforded the same respect or opportunities as European settlers.
Tara Gereaux, a Métis person and extremely talented author, has written this five-star story exploring the repercussions of one woman’s decision to hide her Métis identity. Gereaux’s narrative is focused, gentle, vivid, and methodical; the same approach you’d expect from someone skilled enough to be doing beadwork. Like Indigenous beadwork, the quiet narrative produces a noteworthy result. Will we Canadians sit up and pay attention?
I have taught Canadian history and understand the 1885 Northwest Resistance and the script system, but I had never heard of ‘Road Allowance People’, the NRTA of 1930, or ‘Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act of 1935’. Gereaux educated me. I read in horror at the heartbreaking suffering experienced due to poverty and racism. As a country, we have certainly failed in our responsibility to protect the Metis. Their history is full of dispossession and extinction. It didn’t need to be that way.
Things that gave me pause:
💔the author’s exploration of whether we can be two people at the same time or if we need to split, keeping two separate parts of ourselves
💔the realization that, in keeping something from someone, we actually are keeping something very important and valuable from ourselves.
💔despite the appalling situations forced upon these people, this Road Allowance community is rich in so many ways. I was in awe of the tight community that supported each other as they continued to struggle to keep their culture and way of life intact.
Gereaux brings to life the burden of living as someone else as she shares a little-known element of Metis history, culture and identity. The author’s focus is on resilience and resistance and the book packs a punch despite its soft delivery. It’s one historical fiction lovers and Canadians need on our reading lists ASAP.
I was gifted this copy by Simon & Schuster Canada and was under no obligation to provide a review.
A choice she makes in desperation to be free, Florence Campeau decides to become Florence Banks and slip out of her old life to become someone else.
For the past 11 years, Florence has been a secretary at Pratt’s Insurance and Real Estate in Torduvalle, Saskatchewan. She “blends in with everyone else”; nobody would know she’s one of ‘them’. Them, or half-breeds as the predominantly while Prairie community of 1940s Saskatchewan calls the Métis, are a mixed-race Indigenous people. They were not afforded the same respect or opportunities as European settlers.
Tara Gereaux, a Métis person and extremely talented author, has written this five-star story exploring the repercussions of one woman’s decision to hide her Métis identity. Gereaux’s narrative is focused, gentle, vivid, and methodical; the same approach you’d expect from someone skilled enough to be doing beadwork. Like Indigenous beadwork, the quiet narrative produces a noteworthy result. Will we Canadians sit up and pay attention?
I have taught Canadian history and understand the 1885 Northwest Resistance and the script system, but I had never heard of ‘Road Allowance People’, the NRTA of 1930, or ‘Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act of 1935’. Gereaux educated me. I read in horror at the heartbreaking suffering experienced due to poverty and racism. As a country, we have certainly failed in our responsibility to protect the Metis. Their history is full of dispossession and extinction. It didn’t need to be that way.
Things that gave me pause:
💔the author’s exploration of whether we can be two people at the same time or if we need to split, keeping two separate parts of ourselves
💔the realization that, in keeping something from someone, we actually are keeping something very important and valuable from ourselves.
💔despite the appalling situations forced upon these people, this Road Allowance community is rich in so many ways. I was in awe of the tight community that supported each other as they continued to struggle to keep their culture and way of life intact.
Gereaux brings to life the burden of living as someone else as she shares a little-known element of Metis history, culture and identity. The author’s focus is on resilience and resistance and the book packs a punch despite its soft delivery. It’s one historical fiction lovers and Canadians need on our reading lists ASAP.
I was gifted this copy by Simon & Schuster Canada and was under no obligation to provide a review.
November 23, 2025
Tara Gereaux’s Wild People, Quiet is a courageous and necessary novel; one that confronts a painful part of Canadian history too often pushed to the margins. Through its intimate storytelling, the book compels readers to reckon with the experiences of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) peoples and the far-reaching consequences of government actions that were designed to erase cultures, families, and identities.
What makes Gereaux’s work especially powerful is its quiet insistence on truth. Rather than relying on grand historical exposition, she brings readers close to the emotional realities of the characters: individuals and families whose lives are marked by displacement, mistrust, and an enduring search for belonging. These stories, though fictionalized, are deeply rooted in lived experiences and community memory. They remind readers that the harms inflicted by colonial policies are not abstract historical events; they are wounds carried in bodies, relationships, and intergenerational narratives.
Gereaux writes with compassion, clarity, and restraint. Her prose allows space for the characters’ voices, which often echo the real stories of FNMI survivors who have spoken out about residential schools, forced relocations, and other forms of systemic oppression. This is one of the book’s greatest strengths: it encourages readers to listen and to sit with discomfort, to understand the weight of lived trauma, and to reflect on the role non-Indigenous Canadians have played, knowingly or not, in these injustices.
At the same time, Wild People, Quiet is not simply a catalogue of harm. It is a story of resilience, of communities that continue to resist, reclaim, and heal. Gereaux shows how culture, kinship, and identity persist despite centuries of attempts to quiet them. In doing so, she reframes FNMI histories not only as records of suffering, but as testimonies of strength.
Ultimately, Gereaux’s novel is a vital contribution to the growing body of literature that brings hidden histories to light. It challenges readers to confront truths that have long been overlooked, and it calls for meaningful reflection about accountability, reconciliation, and the responsibility each of us carries to truly hear the stories of FNMI peoples.
Wild People, Quiet is not an easy read, but it is an essential one. It offers the kind of storytelling that lingers long after the final page, urging readers to remember, to question, and to do better.
What makes Gereaux’s work especially powerful is its quiet insistence on truth. Rather than relying on grand historical exposition, she brings readers close to the emotional realities of the characters: individuals and families whose lives are marked by displacement, mistrust, and an enduring search for belonging. These stories, though fictionalized, are deeply rooted in lived experiences and community memory. They remind readers that the harms inflicted by colonial policies are not abstract historical events; they are wounds carried in bodies, relationships, and intergenerational narratives.
Gereaux writes with compassion, clarity, and restraint. Her prose allows space for the characters’ voices, which often echo the real stories of FNMI survivors who have spoken out about residential schools, forced relocations, and other forms of systemic oppression. This is one of the book’s greatest strengths: it encourages readers to listen and to sit with discomfort, to understand the weight of lived trauma, and to reflect on the role non-Indigenous Canadians have played, knowingly or not, in these injustices.
At the same time, Wild People, Quiet is not simply a catalogue of harm. It is a story of resilience, of communities that continue to resist, reclaim, and heal. Gereaux shows how culture, kinship, and identity persist despite centuries of attempts to quiet them. In doing so, she reframes FNMI histories not only as records of suffering, but as testimonies of strength.
Ultimately, Gereaux’s novel is a vital contribution to the growing body of literature that brings hidden histories to light. It challenges readers to confront truths that have long been overlooked, and it calls for meaningful reflection about accountability, reconciliation, and the responsibility each of us carries to truly hear the stories of FNMI peoples.
Wild People, Quiet is not an easy read, but it is an essential one. It offers the kind of storytelling that lingers long after the final page, urging readers to remember, to question, and to do better.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I received this book just this month, and while it may be the last novel I read in 2025, and I have a feeling it will be a key book for many in 2026. Written by a new Canadian author, this book is a compelling work of historical fiction that highlights an important part of Canadian history. 🇨🇦
Wild People Quiet, set in 1946 small town Saskatchewan, follows the story of Florence Banks. She has carefully built a quiet, respectable life while keeping everyone at a distance. When she unexpectedly recognizes someone from her past, the life she worked so hard to leave behind begins to resurface. 😔
The book offers an immersive look into the history and experiences of the Métis people in Saskatchewan. Thoughtful and emotionally resonant, the story is a reminder of the importance of living your truth, even when it comes at a cost. Definitely recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book publishes in March 2026 and I was provided a copy by the publisher.
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#tolovetoread #booksof2025 #metishistory
Wild People Quiet, set in 1946 small town Saskatchewan, follows the story of Florence Banks. She has carefully built a quiet, respectable life while keeping everyone at a distance. When she unexpectedly recognizes someone from her past, the life she worked so hard to leave behind begins to resurface. 😔
The book offers an immersive look into the history and experiences of the Métis people in Saskatchewan. Thoughtful and emotionally resonant, the story is a reminder of the importance of living your truth, even when it comes at a cost. Definitely recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book publishes in March 2026 and I was provided a copy by the publisher.
.
#tolovetoread #booksof2025 #metishistory
December 26, 2025
This is the kind of book that I know will be a 2026 bestseller. Gereaux's voice is incredibly beautiful, the techniques throughout are absorbing, and I could not put this book down.
Beyond addressing some serious Canadian systemic issues, this book made me think about family, loyalty, the choices we make and how they influence our life. The way Gereaux addresses the Métis in the book is well done and I hope that it can resonate with people that have a smaller understanding of this Canadian history. Everything is beautifully melded together and I cannot wait for this book to get on the shelves. I will certainly be recommending it to many people!!!
Beyond addressing some serious Canadian systemic issues, this book made me think about family, loyalty, the choices we make and how they influence our life. The way Gereaux addresses the Métis in the book is well done and I hope that it can resonate with people that have a smaller understanding of this Canadian history. Everything is beautifully melded together and I cannot wait for this book to get on the shelves. I will certainly be recommending it to many people!!!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Beautifully written, captivating and revelatory, this book successfully walks that impossibly-thin line between entertaining and educational. I loved it.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Loved this story and it made me tear up at the end
Full review soon
Thank you to the publisher for my ARC!
Full review soon
Thank you to the publisher for my ARC!
November 24, 2025
*3.5 stars*
A needed window into not-too-distant Métis history, told through story, and all the more urgent for its recent setting.
A needed window into not-too-distant Métis history, told through story, and all the more urgent for its recent setting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews