Podcast Summary: Totally Booked with Zibby – “Art, Family, Escape and Reinvention in Saoirse with Charlene Hurtubais”

Host: Zibby Owens
Guest: Charlene Hurtubais (author of Saoirse)
Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode of Totally Booked with Zibby, host Zibby Owens welcomes novelist Charlene Hurtubais to discuss her new novel Saoirse, a story centered on art, escape, reinvention, and family secrets. Broadcasting from Ireland, Hurtubais reflects on the inspirations behind her work, the emotional core of her characters, and the ways in which personal and collective histories weave into fiction. The conversation covers the creative process, the significance of art (in both form and story), and the empathetic lens through which Hurtubais writes about survival and reinvention.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Art of the Book: Cover and Symbolism

• Beautiful Cover Art (05:12):
  Zibby opens by praising the novel’s striking cover, which is a landscape painting by artist Emma Cowrie, whose work captures the spirit of Donegal and Northern Ireland—the settings for the novel.

  “It’s important also that the cover be representative of art, since that is such a huge part of the book. The main character is an artist… She’s a mastermind at using art to deal with her feelings and everything else…” —Zibby Owens [06:00]

2. Plot Summary and Protagonist’s Journey

• Story Setup (06:38):
  Hurtubais explains Saoirse opens in Donegal in 1999 with the protagonist Saoirse, an artist living with her family, who is secretly an American on the run, having assumed a false identity in Ireland.

  "She only meant to stay temporarily, just kind of lie low from some trouble she was having, and then she accidentally built a life." —Charlene Hurtubais [06:50]

• Inspiration from Real Life (07:43):
  Hurtubais was inspired by true stories of people slipping into Ireland undetected, especially in the pre-digital age, which kicked off her idea for the novel.

3. Themes: Escape, Identity, and Emotional Survival

• Ease of Escape Pre-2000 (09:01):
  Discussion about how, before biometric passports, even a simple act—like borrowing a friend’s passport—could lead someone to create a new life.

  "You made it sound so easy. She just, like, swipes her friend's passport and, like, sticks it in her bag... Luckily, the man on the plane next to her shows her how to flash it when she lands. And that's it." —Zibby Owens [09:01]

• Children, Abandonment, and Maternal Resolve (11:19):
  The novel flashes back to the protagonist’s childhood and moments of abandonment, showing how formative experiences shape later actions, especially as a mother clinging to her children and new life.

  “In all of her resilience, you know, those are her formative years… when she becomes a mother… she does not want to let [her children] down. So she isn’t kind of coming clean… it is still survival. She is in survival mode.” —Charlene Hurtubais [12:03]

4. Relationships and Emotional Crafting

• Portraying Relationships (15:54):
  Zibby lauds the vivid depiction of Saoirse’s partner, Dahi, whose calming presence is the emotional ballast in her turbulent life.

  “He soothes her sense of hyper vigilance. He soothes the sense of her being in survival mode… With him, she can finally breathe, she can finally let go for a while.” —Charlene Hurtubais [16:20]

• Hurtubais explains that she crafts characters and scenes around core emotions, drawing from her own life and observations to explore connection, longing, and the stakes of secrecy.

5. Writing Process and Motivations

• Building with Emotion (18:31):
  Rather than plot or objects, Hurtubais starts with emotions, likening her process to having a Minecraft-like toolbox of emotional building blocks, from which stories are constructed.

  "For me, the tools in my toolkit are emotions and it usually does start with something like that..." —Charlene Hurtubais [18:42]

• Personal Parallels (21:17):
  When asked if she herself was running from something, Hurtubais reflects on how moving from Michigan to Ireland brought her a sense of soothing—something she also channels into her characters’ emotional landscapes.

  “I think all of us are surviving something to some extent… when we're finding ourselves, we always are…” —Charlene Hurtubais [21:21]

6. Empathy and the Survivor’s Perspective

• Intentions for the Book (22:57):
  Hurtubais hopes readers will feel empathy for those in survival mode, especially women with flawed pasts and complex choices. She emphasizes the importance of telling a survivor’s story, with all its nuance and lack of simple heroes or villains.

  "I wanted to give a survivor a voice, even with all of her flaws and bad decisions... empathy that, you know, she made some bad decisions, but she's not a bad person." —Charlene Hurtubais [23:02]

• She urges readers to see the complexity of survival and reinvention, and to “think about those things... because clearly it's not a—it's a complex story. There's no winners, there's no losers.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On art as survival:
  “She is a mastermind at using art to deal with her feelings and everything else and has received so much acclaim for it.” —Zibby Owens [06:00]

• On childhood trauma echoing in adulthood:
  “…that is children, whatever situation they're in, they want their primary caregiver… I do think there is a parallel between that scene and then the later scenes as well…” —Charlene Hurtubais [12:03]

• On emotional literary craft:
  “I think for me, the tools in my toolkit are emotions… you put all these little emotions in and they come out. You unpack them when you need them.” —Charlene Hurtubais [18:42, 21:15]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Episode intro & guest background: [02:16–04:51]
• Discussion about the cover art: [04:54–06:00]
• Plot summary & thematic overview: [06:30–07:26]
• Inspiration from real-life news stories: [07:43–08:51]
• Constructing Saoirse's escape: [09:01–09:35]
• Exploring childhood abandonment: [11:19–13:17]
• Describing Dahi and building relationships: [15:54–17:49]
• Charlene’s writing process: [18:31–21:14]
• Personal reflections & parallels: [21:17–22:33]
• Empathy and survivor’s voice: [22:57–24:36]
• Closing remarks: [24:36–25:06]

Final Thought

Totally Booked with Zibby’s episode with Charlene Hurtubais is both heartfelt and probing, inviting listeners to consider the hidden lives, choices, and emotional battles of women who reinvent themselves against the odds. With art, empathy, and memory at its center, Saoirse is positioned not just as a compelling literary thriller, but as a lens onto the ways we all seek—and deserve—identity, family, and safety.