Saltus

Inspired by real events this is the story of a young man’s drastic measures taken to affirm his sexual identity and the fallout of a desperate act that shakes a community to its core.

In 1992, in a small prairie Canadian town Aaron Gourlay is a 14-year-old boy who asserts that he is female, a claim that no one in Aaron’s life will accept — except for Nadine, a single mom desperate to save her son. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt Aaron begs Nadine to call on town outlier and loner, Al Klassen, a rancher familiar with castrating calves to perform a radical procedure.

The shockwaves of Aaron’s attempt to resolve his own gender transition ripple outward and throws everyone around him out of orbit — and out of their resigned apathy in the stifling town of Saltus where time stands still and nothing new ever happens. Lenore is a Métis woman working at the Harvest Gold Inn & Restaurant who longs for the family she never had. Trish is a young mother who desires nothing more than to flee her husband and son, the family she was never ready for. Roger is the by-the-book police chief in charge of Aaron’s case and Lenore’s new boyfriend. As the details of Aaron’s case emerge, everyone’s lives begin to unravel — and deeply held secrets that will dramatically change the course of their lives rise to the surface.

Available Spring 2020