Love Me Two Times

Butler’s novel was inspired by a conversation overheard in a Wisconsin bar.

Nickolas Butler ’02 was sitting at a bar in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, when he overheard the exchange — and witnessed the kiss — that inspired his most recent novel.

Butler may not have caught the names of the reunited couple at the bar, but in A Forty Year Kiss, they’re Charlie and Vivian, who married young and gave it four years before filing for divorce. Forty years later, Charlie is still battling old demons when he lands back in Wisconsin, intent on reconnecting with Vivian and righting the wrongs of their youth. Forty years is a lot of time to make up for — but how long is too long for true love, and what would you give up for it?

The romantic Forty Year Kiss is a thematic departure from Butler’s most recent work, 2021’s literary thriller Godspeed. But the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Shotgun Lovesongs is no stranger to a love story, and the western-Wisconsin writer infuses as much local flavor into this novel as he does sincerity and care for his characters.

“I don’t need to do a lot of research to write a book about Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin,” he told the Chicago Review of Books. “It was going to be a book I could write passionately.”

According to reviewers, Butler’s confidence was not mis- placed: “Its Midwest is weathered and described with affection and restraint; its people are presented whole and in context, the seldom-seen brought into vivid focus, their yearnings and failings intact,” writes New York Times bestselling author Leif Enger. “A Forty Year Kiss has the courage to suggest it’s not too late — for romance, or transcendence, or just to be better.”

Published in the Fall 2025 issue