The Mason House
A Memoir
A 2021 Michigan Notable Book
"Touching and authentic." —Faith Sullivan, author of Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse
"A powerful celebration of the ties that bind us and of eccentric, laugh-out-loud moments of love, grace, and what it means to be kin."—Tiffany Midge, Author of Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese
"Full of heartache, kindness and grace."—Alana Haley, Nicola's Books
After her father's untimely death, Theresa faced a rocky and unstable childhood. But there was one place she felt safe: her grandmother's house in Mason, a depressed former copper mining town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Gram's passing leaves Theresa once again at the mercy of the lasting, sometimes destructive grief of her Ojibwe mother and white stepfather. As the family travels back and forth across the country in search of a better life, one thing becomes clear: if they want to find peace, they will need to return to their roots.
The Mason House is at once an elegy for lost loved ones and a tale of growing up amid hardship and hope, exploring how time and the support of a community can at last begin to heal even the deepest wounds.
Born amidst the copper mining ruins of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, writer T. Marie Bertineau is of Ojibwe-Anishinaabe and French Canadian/Cornish descent. She is a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of the L’Anse Reservation. Her work has appeared online with Minnesota’s Carver County Arts Consortium; in Mino Miikana, a publication of the Native Justice Coalition and Waub Ajijaak Press; and in Great Lakes Review, Yellow Medicine Review, and others. Marie’s work can also be found on Carrot Ranch dot-com, home of Carrot Ranch Literary Community. The Mason House, her debut memoir, was named a 2021 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan and received the 2021-2022 Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award for Literature from Saginaw Valley State University. Married and the mother of two, she makes her home in the Upper Peninsula.
