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Please join us for an evening with David Huebert. David will be in the store reading from and signing his novel, Oil People. Tickets for this event are $5.Part generational saga, part eco-gothic fable, Oil People is a luminous debut novel about history and family, land and power, and oil as an object of toxic wonder.
1987: Thirteen-year-old Jade Armbruster lives with her parents and older sister on the family’s vintage oil farm—a decrepit property built by her ancestor. As her parents fight about whether to sell the land and their failing business, Jade struggles to avoid her best-friend-turned-nemesis and vies for the attention of the enigmatic farmer boy. Meanwhile, the oil swirling beneath her family’s home provokes erratic behaviours and offers murky revelations about her family’s history on this land.
1862: Clyde Armbruster catches his big break, striking Lambton County’s first gusher. The discovery brings wealth and opportunity to him and his wife Lise, but his daily proximity to oil leaves him infertile and may be the cause of his alarming, otherworldly visions. At the same time, Clyde and Lise develop an alliance with their eccentric and wealthy neighbours, a relationship that promises even more success until a fateful moment intertwines the two families, locking them into a bitter rivalry that lasts generations.
As the two narratives coalesce, family secrets and deceits are slowly unveiled, and the slick spectre of oil seeps off the page, revealing a landscape smeared and stained, yet persistently alive. Intense and visceral, agile and lyrical, Oil People is a molten mirror for the petroleum age, and signals the arrival of a profound and vital voice.
David Huebert (he/him) is a writer and educator of British and Mennonite descent. David is the author of two books of short fiction, two poetry collections, and his novel, Oil People, releasing August 20, 2024. David Huebert’s work has won the CBC Short Story Prize and The Walrus Poetry Prize. His fiction debut, Peninsula Sinking, won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize, and was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. His latest book is the story collection Chemical Valley (Biblioasis 2021). In 2018, David completed his PhD at Western University. He teaches fiction writing in the MFA Programme at The University of King’s College.
Oil People is releasing on August 20 - you can reserve your copy and purchase tickets by messaging us here, calling the store or online at
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
500 Exmouth St, Sarnia, ON, Canada, Ontario N7T 5P4
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