Books

‘A Forty-Year Kiss’: Love of a Lifetime, Three Seats Down

acclaimed Chippewa Valley author Nickolas Butler’s latest novel draws local inspiration

Eric Rasmussen, photos by Andrea Paulseth, Tom Giffey |

LOVE LASTS. Eau Claire author Nickolas Butler's latest is a new novel, A Forty-Year Kiss.(Photo by Andrea Paulseth)
LOVE LASTS. Eau Claire author Nickolas Butler's latest is a new novel, A Forty-Year Kiss. (Photo by Andrea Paulseth)

Visit any local tavern, order a drink, sit back, and you’re bound to witness something notable. College friends who haven’t connected in years. A young couple out for their first real date since the baby was born. Eavesdrop long enough and you’ll learn a few details of these strangers’ complicated lives, but a glimpse is the most you can hope for. When the drink's empty, it’s time to go home.

Author Nickolas Butler found himself in this exact situation one night, enjoying a beer at The Tomahawk Room in Chippewa Falls. In the months prior he had written almost half of a literary thriller, something akin to Shotgun Lovesongs, Godspeed, or the other novels on which he’s built his career, but it just wasn’t working. “I was getting worried,” Nick explains. But while he fought through a Sudoku puzzle at the bar, he caught parts of a conversation between a couple in their 60s seated farther down. Their kissing interrupted their discussion of how great it felt to be reunited, and this snippet of these strangers’ lives was all the inspiration Nick needed. “At the beginning of my career I wouldn’t have acknowledged that there might be writing gods, but I realized I had to follow this.”

The resulting novel is titled A Forty-Year Kiss, and it tells the story of Charlie and Vivian, who were married for four years in the 1980s and haven’t talked since. The book opens with the exact scene Butler witnessed in The Tomahawk Room, where these two find each other again after 40 years, and what follows is a tale of love, growth, and second chances. Charlie still struggles with the alcoholism that ended their marriage the first time, Vivian spent her whole life chasing the dreams of family and stability that Charlie hadn’t provided, and they both have secrets they’re not initially ready to reveal. But at a time when most bestsellers are full of murders and shocking twists, A Forty-Year Kiss follows a different path. Its drama is that which is present in most of our lives, and its characters are the people we see sitting at our favorite bars around town. While stories full of violence and intrigue will always get the blood pumping, Butler’s eavesdropping experiment proves the most satisfying stories might be the ones happening just within earshot.

Butler, left, talks about his new novel with UW-Eau Claire Professor Emeritus
Nickolas Butler, left, talked about his new novel with UW-Eau Claire Professor Emeritus John Hildebrand at an event at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library on Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Tom Giffey)

Local fans of Butler’s writing will notice additional evolution amongst these pages. A Forty-Year Kiss is the fourth novel Butler has set in the hills and forests of western Wisconsin, except this time he found the confidence to craft his scenes in the real-life spaces dotting the landscape, instead of fictionalized locations. “I wanted the book to feel intimate. I wanted each scene to feel close,” he explains, and watching these characters wander downtown Chippewa Falls, visit Irvine Park, and stop for dinner at the Olive Garden by Oakwood Mall only adds to the authenticity of the story.

Writing a quiet, heartfelt novel set in a realistic version of the Upper Midwest is a risk, but the early phases of A Forty Year-Kiss’s release seem to indicate that risk might pay off. “During the drafting process, we started to attract big Hollywood interest,” explains Butler. “Because it’s Hollywood, it’s hard to gauge what’s real, but I’ve been told Tom Hanks’s people want him to do it, but they’re only interested if Meryl Streep is interested, so she has to read it. While this is happening, my agent said he’d reach out to Steven Spielberg. So, who knows? But people are kicking the tires.” And even if a blockbuster film isn’t the cards, an impressive initial print run and a robust marketing campaign means A Forty-Year Kiss might do more than further cement Butler as one of our region’s most successful writers; it might elevate him even higher up the ladder of American authors seeking to tell honest stories from the heartland.

With prospects like that, it’s tempting to daydream how far this book could go, but Butler makes a point not to participate in such speculation. “I really don’t pay attention to the market,” states Butler. “You just can’t time it or game it.” What matters, instead, is telling good stories, and that’s what A Forty-Year Kiss is. A good story, the kind that’s especially important now that our neighbors seated down the bar feel farther away than ever before.


A Forty-Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler is available everywhere starting Feb. 4, including The Local Store, 205 N. Dewey St., Eau Claire. Learn more about the author on his website.