Evocative of Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness and Diane Warren’s Cool Water, Tara Gereaux’s novel, set in small-town Saskatchewan, dissects themes of Métis identity, female identity and motherhood, aging and regret, and finally, acceptance.

Nothing ever seems to happen in the small town of Saltus. At the Harvest Gold Inn and Restaurant off Highway 53, two waitresses spend their evening shifts delivering Salisbury steak specials and slices of pie to the regulars. But everything changes when Nadine, a headstrong single mother, and her teenager, Aaron, arrive at the Gold, where Aaron—who has repeatedly been denied appropriate gender-affirming medical care from the mainstream system—undergoes a near-fatal procedure performed by an unqualified and eccentric recluse who lives on the outskirts of Saltus.

The events that transpire that evening force each townsperson to look long and hard at themselves, at their own identities, and at the traumas and experiences that have shaped them. Told from multiple perspectives, Saltus reveals the complexities inherent in accepting the identities of loved ones, and the tragic consequences that unfold if they are ignored. It is a story about relationships with others, and, even more importantly, with ourselves.

Tara Gereaux is a Métis from the Qu’Appelle Valley who spent her childhood years in Fort Qu’Appelle and her teen years in Winnipeg. She studied screenwriting at York University and Creative Writing and UBC and has worked as a researcher, writer, and story editor in film and television. Gereaux’s fiction and creative non-fiction has been published in several Canadian literary magazines, and she won Event Magazine’s 14th Annual Creative Non-fiction Competition as well as several other screenwriting and non-fiction awards. Size of a Fist is her first novel. Gereaux lives in Regina.

Tara Gereaux's profile page

• Short-listed, ReLit Award (Novel)

“Calm, measured and fearless, Gereaux skillfully, and with compassion, depicts a community in the aftermath of trauma. Based on true events, this work of fiction is both haunting and human. Gereaux’s strength is in her characters—you can’t help but feel their torments as if they were your own.”

Lisa Bird-Wilson

“Tara Gereaux is a beautiful writer. This is a big story of a small town, told in prose that is humane, compassionate, and achingly honest.”

Helen Humphreys

“The portrayal of small-town life is layered and profound in this novel set on the Prairies in the ’90s.”

<i>Prairie Books Now</i>