Tara Gereaux’s second novel, Saltus, was published by Nightwood Editions in Spring, 2021. It has since been nominated for several Saskatchewan Book Awards: The City of Regina Award, the Fiction Award, and the Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award. Congratulations, Tara!

Set in the early nineties, this book takes place in the small prairie town of Saltus, where nothing ever seems to happen. Then, something does happen. The lives and identities of these small-town characters are thrown into turmoil when a headstrong single mother (Nadine) arrives at the hotel with a teenager (Erin) who has repeatedly been denied appropriate gender-affirming medical care.

In the Preface, you say that this novel was based on a true story that happened in your home town. When you heard about it, did you know immediately that you wanted to write about it? How did you research this story and how did it take shape for you?

I didn’t know I’d write something about it at first. But I kept thinking about it, kept coming back to it. It was eight years after I first heard about it that I decided to try writing something about it. I was living in Vancouver then, and I wrote a draft from a single character’s perspective (that of Al’s, who was a very different character from the Al who is in the novel). It took me about a year to complete that first attempt but when I was done, I hated everything about it. It was flat and lifeless, and I packed it away. But I continued to think about it. Four years after that first draft and after I had moved back to Saskatchewan, I realized that when I was thinking about it, I was thinking about all the people in town who might have been involved. That was when I started writing it again but from an entirely angle – from the POV of the various characters involved. That was my way in.

Research was something I did continuously while writing the draft. As I made my way through, I discovered certain things needed to be included. During this process, I spoke with EMTs, child welfare workers, farmers, and officers, in addition to doing tons of secondary research. 

I was particularly concerned about ensuring that the experiences of Erin were realistic, and this led me to consult with a local woman who grew up in small-town Saskatchewan and related to Erin’s experiences. She became my sensitivity reader and the conversations we had were especially helpful in understanding the challenges and roadblocks Erin and her mother would have faced given their situation, where they were living, and the time they were living in. 

You chose to tell this story from the point of view of four people who were peripheral to the main story (Lenore, Trish, Jace, and Roger) as well as from the points of view of the three who were part of the main story (Al, Nadine, and Erin). How did you decide on those four peripheral characters as narrators?

Initially, I had planned to write from only the perspectives of those four peripheral characters – because that’s how I was drawn into the story (through those who were inadvertently involved). I’m never sure how fictional characters come to writers, but those four came to me first, and I wrote the first draft chronologically and alternated between them. 

Before finishing that first multi-perspective draft, however, I knew that I was also going to include Al’s POV – even though he lives outside of town, he’s very much a part of it. But it wasn’t until I was done writing the other four characters that I was able to go in and write his story and his voice. I needed more time with him, more time to separate him from that initial draft I wrote years earlier.

Erin had also been a part of the story right from the beginning, naturally. And while she has a large presence in the novel, we do not get her direct perspective. This was an intentional choice from the start. Nadine was the final character I wrote. I hesitated about writing from her perspective because she lives outside the town, but her character provides an integral counterbalance to the others’ stories. 

And, following from that, sort of, I’m really interested in why you chose Roger as one of the narrators. He could have easily been “othered” as purely a villain, but you chose to let us see his side and make him somewhat empathetic. What drove you to make that choice? 

I get asked this question a lot and it’s a good one, but it’s also a difficult one to answer. I never thought about Roger as being the antagonist when beginning to write the story. I only thought about him as having certain beliefs and positions on things, and I wanted to explore how those beliefs and opinions would impact his decisions in the story. 

Honestly, it wasn’t until I was deep into several drafts that I realized Roger could be considered an antagonist. But maybe that approach saved me from writing him as a “pure villain” and “othering” him.

When approaching any character, I always try to think of what I might have in common with them. That’s my entry point. With Roger, while I certainly don’t share his opinion on the vast majority of things, part of me understands that pull towards such a black-and-white, right-and-wrong perspective. The distilling down or over simplification of complexities is alluring. 

The fictional town of Saltus is also a character in this story. It’s described at one point as being “an open wound that never heals.” Can you tell me a bit about how you wanted the town to reflect and gather the pain and unsettled feelings of all of this novel’s characters?

From my experience, living in a small town can (at times) heighten feelings of isolation and loneliness, of being disconnected. These feelings can be further exacerbated when the town is down in a valley and hemmed in by hills. You can feel trapped. Stuck. It’s these feelings that I was exploring in Saltus – the external landscape mirroring the characters’ inner lives and internal struggles, almost fueling and heightening them. 

There’s a line in the book: “Mothers don’t do this,” that really stood out to me. Can you tell me a bit more about what you wanted to explore regarding mothers, the expectations put on mothers, and the at times agonizing decisions mothers need to make in order to protect their children?

Trish’s character has this line in the novel, and of the initial four characters I wrote, Trish was the first. I’ve always been interested in stories of women who struggle with motherhood because it was not (or, at least not previously) explored in deep ways. Growing up, being a mother was always presented as the most glorious, most amazing, most important thing a woman could do. And any woman who didn’t feel that way was demonized. But I knew, and know, women who do struggle with it. Question it. From the start, Trish’s story was always going to be focused on this theme – as other characters face other expectations – but what I hadn’t expected was that many of the other characters’ stories also focus on this. It became almost an overarching theme, which connects very closely to the next question… 

And finally, at one point, Trish says, “Those are the details, not the truth.” There’s a lot of imposing of people’s truths or ideas of what’s right and wrong onto others in this book. Tell me a bit more about what you wanted to explore there. 

I wanted to explore how all of these characters are facing societal pressures to do “what’s right,” but that expectations are often limiting, constricting. What’s right for one, isn’t right for another. For Trish, she’s telling the journalist that the camera shot she’s after, that single detail, won’t tell her very much about what happened. That single shot won’t tell her about the lives of those who were involved, about how those lives were affected. About the relationships that were made and broken. She’s telling her that there’s so much more to the story than just a single camera shot. And I think that was ultimately what I was trying to explore – that we often interpret or draw conclusions based a single camera angle, but it’s never as simple as that. 

Thanks very much, Tara! Now, you’ve prepared a Saltus Playlist for us to enjoy, with explanations for all of the songs chosen:

I listen to music when preparing to write or when thinking about my writing while I jog, do dishes, walk the dog… but I don’t listen to music while writing because I find it too distracting -- my thoughts too easily pulled into memories or other thoughts and away from the story I’m working on. While writing Saltus, there were songs I’d listen to over and over again when focusing on a particular character, so I included those here -- a song for each character, and a couple for the town itself, since I consider it to be an important character as well.

Saltus – Tracy Chapman’s “Crossroads”

During the final couple of years living in my hometown, Tracy Chapman was one of the musicians I listened to nonstop. This song especially reminds me of my hometown and the fictional Saltus.

Lenore – William Prince’s “All I Know”

So many of William Prince’s songs make me think of Lenore and her journey (I listened to “Earthly Days” on repeat forever while thinking of her and her arc…), but this is the song I imagine playing over that final image of Lenore, her final moments in the story.

Saltus – Orville Peck’s “Turn to Hate”

Peck is another artist that always reminds me of my hometown and this song could also be a theme song for Al or Roger.

Nadine – Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town”

Though her musical taste in rock is referenced in the novel, and she was very much into heavy rock and metal, it’s Steve Earle that she’s listening to when Roger pulls her over for speeding. (My mother’s foot used to get heavy on our drives between Winnipeg and my hometown whenever Bruce Springsteen was on the tape deck, which was the inspiration for this scene.)

Roger – Heart’s “Crazy on You”

There’s a scene in the novel where Roger’s drinking out on his back deck at the end of the day. I always imagined this would be a regular routine for him and that he’d be listening to Heart or Trooper or Loverboy.

Erin – AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”

Writers know that during the revision process many sections get rewritten or cut altogether, and one of the sections I cut in an early draft of Saltus was about one of Erin’s favourite pastimes—playing DJ for her mother after rough days at work. Erin’s personal taste is eclectic and wide ranging, but she also has a soft spot for the same rock and metal bands her mother loves. 

Al – Mumford and Sons’ “Little Lion Man”

When writing Saltus, I ran a lot and listened to an iPod shuffle while thinking of the story. But because it was a shuffle, I often didn’t know which song I was listening to or who it was (and I often forgot what I even put on it). But whenever this song came on, I always thought of Al. Initially (and for a long while), I thought the lyrics were “Little Lying Man,” but even when I learned the real title and lyrics, I still thought it was a fitting song for him. It’s still who I immediately think of whenever I hear this song.

Jase – Le Ren & Buck Meek’s version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain”

My very first memory is when I was around three or four years old. I was sitting in the living room of our trailer listening to Gordon Lightfoot while my mother did dishes in the kitchen and sang along. I don’t remember if this is the song that was playing but I remember the feeling I had, and this is the song that brings that same feeling back to me—a kind of longing or yearning—and I imagine Jase carrying that same feeling with him a lot. 

Trish – Buffy Sainte-Marie’s version of Neil Young’s “Helpless”

Just as Jase carries a certain emotion at his core that his theme song hits on, so does Trish. And this song gets it perfectly.  

Saltus – Arlo McKinley’s “This Damn Town”

Pretty self-explanatory.