Q&A
MEET THE AUTHOR
When Smyrna local
Colleen Oakley sits
down to write, the premises for
her novels are usually so
bizarre, she wonders if she “can
pull it off and make it believable
for the reader.” Take her latest
work, “The Invisible Husband of Frick Island,” a tale of
love, grief and faith.
Piper Parrish’s life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote
town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is
nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her
darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom’s crab boat
capsized and his body wasn’t recovered, Piper, rocked to
the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her
husband was not only still alive, but right there beside
her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each
morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night
dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the
townspeople to do but go along with their beloved
widowed Piper?
By MADISON HOGAN
When a young ambitious journalist
comes to town looking for his big break, he
stumbles upon an entire town pretending to
see and interact with a man who does not
actually exist. Determined it’s the careermaking
story he’s been needing for his
podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin
covert research and spend more time with
the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea that
out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his
that will change the most.
A USA Today best-selling author of “You
Were There Too,” “Close Enough to Touch,”
and “Before I Go,” Oakley started off her
writing career in magazines. A proud graduate of the
University of Georgia’s school of journalism, Oakley has
served as the former magazine editor for Marie Claire
and Women’s Health & Fitness. Colleen’s novels have
been longlisted for the Southern Book Prize twice and
Close Enough to Touch won the French Reader’s Prize.
Her books have been translated into 21 languages,
optioned for film and have received numerous accolades.
She currently lives in Cobb County with her husband,
four kids, four chickens, two guinea pigs and one fish.
Cobb Life Editor Madison Hogan asked Oakley to
share some of her insights as a writer and talked the
nitty gritty about finding inspiration in unlikely places, a
different kind of tale about love and storytelling.
CL: How did the idea for “The Invisible Husband
of Frick Island“ come about?
CO: A few years ago there was a big news story about a woman
in Australia whose husband had died, and she was in such
denial about it, she left his body in their bed and continued to
live her life as though everything were completely fine. It wasn’t
until a neighbor noticed an… odor, that people found out. I know
that’s so morbid, but as a novelist I found it fascinating—the
idea that grief can make us do such strange things, and that
no two people grieve the same way. And that woman’s story
was the initial spark of the idea for “The Invisible Husband of
Frick Island,” about a woman who is in such denial about her
husband’s death, she wakes up every morning and lives her life
as if he is right there beside her (fortunately, without the rotting
corpse in the bed).
CL: What separates this book from other pieces you’ve
written? What connects it?
CO: Every book I write has some kind of outlandish premise—
something that’s so bizarre I wonder if I can pull it off and make
it believable for the reader. I love the challenge of that. I’m not
sure it gets much stranger than a woman thinking she can see
her dead husband—and an entire town going along with it—so
Frick Island is no different from my other books in that respect.
What makes Frick stand out from my previous books is that it’s
more than a love story between two people, it’s a love story
about a community and the lengths we as humans will go for
the people we love.
CL: What can readers expect from “The Invisible Husband
of Frick Island?
CO: They can expect a journey to a very unique and interesting
island—it’s the perfect read for a time when people perhaps
aren’t traveling as much, and want to escape in their minds. It
also doesn’t fit easily into any one genre—there’s a little bit of
love story, a little bit of mystery, some humor—so readers can
also expect a few twists and turns, some emotional resonance
and a lot of laughter along the way.
CL: How does inspiration strike you?
CO: Sometimes it doesn’t! But I have to write and push through
it anyway. When it does strike, it’s at strange times, like when
56 COBB LIFE | NOVEMBER 2021