When writing her novel The Need—which would go on to become a National Book Award nominee and a New York Times Notable Book of 2019—Helen Phillips knew that her protagonist Molly was a scientist who worked at an excavation site where strange artifacts had begun to emerge from the earth. But she couldn’t quite figure out how to evoke Molly’s professional life and make the different strands of the narrative fit together until, almost by chance, she started talking with paleobotanist Dr. Sarah E. Allen. Their initial two-hour phone conversation about paleobotany (the study of plant fossils) provided critical insights that transformed the concept of the book, and these insights were refined and deepened in subsequent conversations over the course of more than a year
On the eve of the publication of the paperback edition of The Need, Helen and Sarah discussed the ways that paleobotany shaped the book; paleobotanical mysteries; alternate realities in fossils, and in fiction; creativity and research in both of their fields; and the power of interdisciplinary conversation.
Featured Book
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The Need
By Helen Phillips
Published by Simon & Schuster
When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.
But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.
Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.
In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery.
