Rufous and Calliope: A Novel

In Rufous and Calliope, Sarah Louise Butler takes readers deep into the rugged British Columbia Interior, where the mysteries of nature collide with the fragile threads of memory.

Rufous Flanagan, a modern-day cartographer, embarks on a solo trek through an ancient mountain pass in search of the summer hideaway he once shared with his siblings as child runaways. With every step, the vast, untamed wilderness presents both physical and emotional challenges, forcing Rufous to confront not only the treacherous terrain but also the unravelling of his own mind.

His memories—sometimes vivid, sometimes slipping away—become a map guiding him through towering forests, dry creek beds and smoke-filled skies. In this landscape, not everything is as it seems: echoes of the past lead Rufous on a journey that blurs the line between dream and reality. As the elements close in, this novel offers a suspenseful tale of survival, memory and family bonds.

“An elegiac love letter to our fragile natural world and to the family bonds that shape us, Sarah Louise Butler’s Rufous and Calliope takes us on a riveting odyssey to recover time past and one’s fractured sense of self. A deeply resonant meditation on personal and ecological losses, Butler’s novel also reaffirms our human impulse to connect and delight in this often-devastating world. Rufous and Calliope left me spellbound.”

“Rufous and Calliope, the stunning new novel by West Kootenay, B.C., writer Sarah Louise Butler ... In a few brief pages, Butler skilfully and seamlessly introduces several of the multitude of questions that power this dynamic novel.... she has crafted a smoky, hazy dream of a novel, weaving together strands of environmental fiction and nature writing, while remaining firmly centred on Rufous himself...an understated, bravura performance. A writer to watch indeed.”