Sarah Louise Butler brings together science, magic and faith in her debut novel, The Wild Heavens

This interview originally aired on Oct. 3, 2020.

Sarah Louise Butler's debut novel, The Wild Heavens, is inspired by her personal connections with science and nature. 

The Wild Heavens tells the story of a young mother named Sandy Langley who reflects on her grandfather, a man obsessed with a mysterious creature in the woods.

Butler spoke with The Next Chapter about writing The Wild Heavens.

Gestation period

"It took me almost a decade to write this book. Over that long stretch of time, things changed a lot. Initially, I was coming at the story from a scientific angle. It wasn't until partway through that elements of magic realism started creeping in, almost against my will.

"I realized that there was something going on there with my own history of having grown up very religious, but then having left the Catholic Church as quite a young child. I kept finding bits of post-Catholic debris scattered throughout the work. What I came to realize was that I was trying to reconcile the two strongest influences of my earliest years. 

"I was growing up as a nature and science obsessed child, but in a very religious family. I get a lot into the idea of faith and belief and the nature and trajectory of belief." 

Observe the word

"I thought a lot about the word observant and its two different meanings. I was trying to find connections between the two different ways to interpret the word.

"The novel is set in a fictional place, but similar to where I live in the southeastern interior of B.C., I wanted my main character, Sandy, to grow up in an unusual, rural, remote, but also a science-tinged environment. That's why I put her in a remote wilderness cabin with her main caregiver, her grandfather as a veterinarian and a studious person." 

Sarah Louise Butler's comments have been edited for length and clarity.