Hold Your Tongue

Publisher's Description (NeWest Press): Upon learning his great-uncle Alfred has suffered a stroke, Richard sets out for Ste. Anne, in southeastern Manitoba, to find his father and tell him the news. Waylaid by memories of his stalled romance, tales of run-ins with local Mennonites, his job working a honey wagon, and struck by visions of Métis history and secrets of his family’s past, Richard confronts his desires to leave town, even as he learns to embrace his heritage. Evoking an oral storytelling epic that weaves together one family’s complex history, Hold Your Tongue asks what it means to be Métis and francophone. Recalling the work of Katherena Vermette and Joshua Whitehead, Matthew Tétreault’s debut novel shines with a poignant, but playful character-driven meditation on the struggles of holding onto “la langue,” and marks the emergence of an important new voice.

Author Biography (NeWest Press): Matthew Tétreault (he / him) is Métis and French-Canadian from Ste. Anne, Manitoba. He is the author of What Happened on the Bloodvein (Pemmican Publications, 2015), a dark, but humourous collection of interrelated short stories set in southeast Manitoba. Matt holds a PhD in Métis literature and literary history from the University of Alberta, and he received a Governor General’s Gold Medal for academic excellence. His dissertation traces the literary history of the Red River Métis. In between academic and creative writing projects, Matt plays guitar, video games, and poker for pocket change. He recently moonlighted as the “farm boss” on his in-laws’ ranch in St. Ambroise, where he, his wife, daughter, and his old cat, Major Tom, landed upon their return to Manitoba. Hold Your Tongue is his first novel. He lives in Winnipeg.

Resource type: Book (Fiction)

Age recommendation: Grades 10-12, post-secondary

Keywords: Métis history, family, francophone, Métis, voice, language, oral storytelling, heritage, southeastern Manitoba, Ste. Anne, past, recollection, memories, history

Year of publication: 2023

Publisher information: NeWest Press