From a trip for firewood to an acclaimed debut novel: Emily Ruskovich to visit for "Everybody Reads"

The summer after Emily Ruskovich got her Master's Degree, back home visiting Hoodoo Mountain, Idaho, she went with her parents in a truck to a clearing to retrieve a stack of firewood.

"I felt this place had a memory," she said. "I had a very, very unsettled feeling. I felt it knew something I didn't."

The feeling stayed with her and she began to write a short story.

In 2012, three years later, the untitled piece was about to be published in a collection by Random House when its editors asked Ruskovich to hold off. This is a novel, they said.

Ruskovich considered it, her story collection was s...