Strangers in the House

A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging

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Greystone Books
Candace Savage
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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. Napoleon 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, Napoleon 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 Napoleon'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.

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Contributor Bio

Candace SavageĀ is the author of several bestselling, award-winning books. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 1994 was inducted into the Honor Roll of the Rachel Carson Institute, Chatham College, in Pittsburgh. She shares her time between Eastend and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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