Local teacher Marv Sather publishes novel

Though it took different forms, Marv Sather has held the kernel of a novel in his mind from 1993 until about 2015, when he started seriously writing with the support of a writing group in Spokane.

Now the Libby teacher, journalist and author at last self-published his novel, “Towers of Somers,” on July 10.

“It was always in my head,” Sather said in an interview July 12. “But until I retired I didn’t have time to really work on it.”

The novel is a coming-of-age story set in the northwest corner of Flathead Lake near Kalispell, where Sather spent the first three years of his life before the family moved to Libby because the Somers mill was closing.

“The story is mainly focused on the central character of Sam Sanders who is growing up,” Sather writes in a release about the novel. “However, growing up doesn’t have to end at some magical age.”

Sather said he is himself still growing up at 72 and learning to live with the losses in life, including the deaths of his two wives.

Describing his writing as an escape, Sather said it was “fun to get inside the minds of the three female characters in the story” and that when he’s writing, it’s as though he has “a camera hovering over my head and I’m seeing, feeling, tasting and smelling everything as they do.”

Details in the historical novel, set during the Great Depression, were gleaned from stories told by Sather’s grandparents, who all lived until he was an adult, and his mother, now 93.

To launch his novel, Sather will hold a reading at the public meeting room of the Libby Library 3 p.m. Thursday, July 27. He will donate one dollar from every book sale on the day to the Friends of the Library.

“Towers of Somers” is also available for purchase online.