Her Kind: Sophie Lefens’ Debut Novel and the Mysticism of Maternity

“I knew I wanted to bring a book into this world,” says Sophie Lefens, debut author of the upcoming literary novel Her Kind, which explores motherhood and friendship through a mystical lens. “That feeling was going to loom over me forever. And I knew I was ready… There was a charge to the writing that propelled me to keep going.”

Lefens grew up in Chicago and after completing a writing program at Brigham Young University, she set off to Yale Divinity School with the singular goal of studying under award-winning poet and novelist Christian Wiman. She felt that the intimacy of BYU’s writing program helped build a strong foundation for her time at YDS, which has a reputation for its rigorous literary program. Lefens now lives in Holladay with her family.

As a wife and mother who’s had several fits and starts in fields like publishing and education, Lefens finds that time is her most precious resource. “With a young kid, every minute of your day has to be accounted for,” she says. “Every time I was writing, it was at the expense of someone else.” Like most parents in the Salt Lake Valley, Lefens doesn’t have the luxury of childcare, so her community is everything. It’s the faith they placed in her writing and the time they carved out of their days that allowed Lefens to pour her heart and soul into Her Kind, which is available on Oct. 13 from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

The novel follows Ada, a mother who — plagued by visions of being pulled away from Earth — invites her three best friends to a weekend at her otherworldly aunt’s crumbling lakeside home. Among the wildflowers and the hum of the water, Ada hopes to determine who might care for her son, Lenny, in the event of her death.

“It’s a deeply personal novel,” Lefens says, and it’s no surprise considering the themes of motherhood and friendship. But Her Kind delves beyond surface-level realism and explores these themes through a mystical lens. I’m of the opinion that realism in fiction is a fallacy, anyway. It’s in novels like Her Kind that readers are invited beyond the veneer of material reality to wander the woods of the unconscious. It’s one of my favorite things a novel can do, and Her Kind doesn’t aim to sacrifice an ounce of entertainment value in that pursuit. In other words, it’s as cozy and propulsive as it is enriching — and few literary authors manage to strike that balance.

Lefens comes from a poetry background and finds that plotting is among the more challenging aspects of writing a novel. “Most of what I read is pretty light on plot…so I felt that [in writing Her Kind], once all of the architecture was finally finished, then the poetry could sort of sing, and that part was a lot of fun for me,” she says, adding that “the stamina it takes to write a novel is not talked about enough,” but she urges other writers to power through and have faith in their own ability. She wrote the first draft of Her Kind in all of 10 months, which I think is apt for a novel concerned with maternity.

Lefens describes the novel as being very character-driven and a deep psychological dive into the protagonist and her friends. “It’s sort of a love-fest of a story,” she says, and adds that all of the characters are composites of people she knows. “It was just so fun to be with these people… It was so fulfilling in a way that poetry isn’t, in that I could just go so deep into the consciousnesses of these people.”

So many of our greatest novelists come from poetry backgrounds, and Sophie Lefens is poised to join the ranks. With Her Kind, she aims to infuse the lyrical and impressionistic qualities of poetry without sacrificing plot. If that sounds as refreshing to you as it does to me, be sure to attend the read-and-sign release party for Her Kind on Oct. 13 at The King’s English Bookshop.

Read more bookish scoops from Keyon Hejazi-Far:
A Bad Deal in Mormon Land: T.I.M. Wirkus’ Novel Hits Close to Home
Salt Lake Book Festival Fills the Sundance Void

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