Book club to mull Métis, rural history in Hold Your Tongue

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are pleased to welcome Métis/French-Canadian author Matthew Tétreault to the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his novel Hold Your Tongue.

Published in May 2023 by NeWest Press, Hold Your Tongue is set in Ste. Anne and Winnipeg (where Tétreault hails from and lives, respectively), featuring writing in English, French and Michif through which Tétreault contemplates what it means to be Métis and francophone.

After learning his great-uncle has had a stroke, Richard makes his way back to the town of Ste. Anne to convey the news to his father, learning about area history and his Métis roots, family secrets and stories of the past along the way. Richard must then contemplate living in Ste. Anne versus in the city.

Hold Your Tongue is Tétreault’s first novel and second book — his debut was the 2016 short-story collection What Happened on the Bloodvein.

In her Free Press review of Hold Your Tongue, Bev Sandell Greenberg called the book a “richly textured and thought-provoking contemporary debut novel,” commending Tétreault’s “nimble, sure-footed prose.” She added “Tétreault’s keen ear for dialogue is well evidenced in the use of French spoken by the townspeople. By interspersing their version of the language with some English, he provides readers with a context for the verbal exchanges… he immerses us in the cadences and idiosyncrasies of language, thus authenticating and enriching the novel.”

For the Free Press Book Club’s virtual meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, Tétreault will be joined by Free Press columnist Rebecca Chambers, Adam Araujo of McNally Robinson Booksellers and Free Press multimedia producer Nadya Pankiw. Tétreault will read from Hold Your Tongue, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers.

Copies of Hold Your Tongue are available to purchase at McNally Robinson; there is no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion (video of the meeting will be available to replay after the event on the Free Press YouTube channel).

To join the Free Press Book Club and for more information on current and future book picks, visit Bookclub.