Spokane native, bestselling author Eileen Garvin talks new novel, ‘Crow Talk’

Good things are often born from bad situations.

That was the case for Spokane native Eileen Garvin, whose new book, “Crow Talk,” sprouted from a visit to her family cabin on Lake Coeur d’Alene during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garvin discussed the novel with Spokesman-Review outdoors columnist Ammi Midstokke at the newspaper’s Northwest Passages book club event Thursday night at the Steam Plant in downtown Spokane.

Garvin said she could handle shelter-in-place orders because the Oregon resident’s backyard was the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, where rivers and trails are plentiful.

Then, government officials “freaked out” and closed state parks and national forests. So, Garvin drove across the state and into Idaho to her family’s cabin.

“I just felt so grateful to be there, so that’s where it started,” she said. “I started writing the book about a year later, but the sense of place was the thing that was most important to me, like, where’s the comfort? And that’s really where the story is seeded for me.”

The book chronicles a pair of women who flock to a cabin on fictional June Lake near Mount Adams. The lake is a blend of Garvin’s childhood memories in Idaho and her current residence of Hood River.

Garvin is a national bestselling author of “The Music of Bees.”