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Strangers in the House
- A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging
- Narrated by: Cynthia Potvin
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
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Strangers in the House
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Summary
A renowned author investigates the dark and shocking history of her prairie house.
When researching the first occupant of her Saskatoon home, Candace Savage discovers a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she expected.
Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed “undesirable” by the political and social elite, who sought to populate the Canadian prairies with WASPs only. In an atmosphere poisoned first by the Orange Order and then by the Ku Klux Klan, Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their “foreignness”.
In Strangers in the House, Savage scours public records and historical accounts and interviews several of Napoléon’s descendants, including his youngest son, to reveal a family story marked by challenge and resilience. In the process, she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today.
Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Critic reviews
"The book’s charm lies in its first-person narrative, which poignantly conjures the Blondin family’s challenges along with the author’s reactions to historical events." (Publishers Weekly)
"Riveting and poignant. Savage captures the tragedy and tenacity that define the history of Québec and its diaspora across North America. A rare sympathetic view from an Anglo-Canadian." (David Vermette, A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans)
"Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Strangers in the House is a remarkable achievement." (Roy MacGregor, Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and Its People)