1987: Thirteen-year-old Jade Armbruster lives with her parents and older sister on the family’s old oil farm – a run-down property built by her ancestor. While her parents argue over whether to sell the land and their failing business, Jade tries to avoid her best friend-turned-nemesis and vie for the attention of the mysterious farm boy. Meanwhile, the oil swirling beneath her family’s home provokes erratic behavior and offers dark revelations about her family’s history on the land.
1862: Clyde Armbruster gets his big break, striking the first oil well in Lambton County. The discovery brings wealth and opportunity to him and his wife Lise, but his daily proximity to oil renders him infertile, which may be the cause of his disturbing, otherworldly visions. At the same time, Clyde and Lise develop an alliance with their eccentric and wealthy neighbors, a relationship that promises even more success until a fateful moment enmeshes the two families and embroils them in a bitter rivalry that lasts for generations.
As the two narratives merge, family secrets and deceptions are slowly revealed and the greasy smell of oil seeps from the page, revealing a smeared and stained yet vibrant landscape. Intense and emotive, agile and lyrical, Oil People is a molten mirror of the petroleum age and signals the arrival of a profound and vibrant voice. (By McClelland & Stewart)
David Huebert is a Halifax-based writer who has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Walrus Poetry Prize. He is the author of short story collections Sinking of the peninsulawhich won a Dartmouth Book Award and was runner-up in the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and Chemical Valleywhich won the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize.
Interviews with David Huebert
CBC Books8:21“Enigma” by David Huebert
Listen to the story that won the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize.
