03/16/2026
In just over one week, our Winter reading club season concludes when we meet to chat about Oil People by David Huebert, a generational and eco-gothic fable 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.
📣 There’s still enough time to read the book if you’re interested in joining on this round. We have a lil stack of copies on hand if you’d like to grab one. You can also bring your own copy, listen to the audiobook, or take it out from the library. We meet on the last Wednesday of each month and the club is free to join—purchase isn’t necessary! Shoot us an email ([email protected]) to be added to the club roster.
