Don’t be fooled by its curious title: The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, the debut novel by Canadian author and entrepreneur Emma Knight, isn’t a biology book. “It’s not about octopuses, and it’s a mouthful, I know, but it’s a fun conversation starter,” the 36-year-old writer says from her home in Toronto.

After penning a pair of cookbooks, Knight tried her hand at fiction-writing in secret, and since she has two young daughters and a day job as the co-founder of Greenhouse Juice Co., scribbled it in a notebook whenever she could steal a few minutes to herself.

 That brings us to the significance of the female octopus, which you may be wondering about, and relates to motherhood and selflessness and sacrifice: After an octopus lays her eggs, cleaning and protecting them becomes her priority at all costs. Unable to leave their side, she stops looking for food, then stops eating, then wastes away. By the time the eggs hatch, she’s starved to death. For anyone struggling with the demands of motherhood and loss of identity or self, it’s a real nighttime keeper-upper.

 The life cycle of the common octopus is a passing phrase turned thematic metaphor in Knight’s coming-of-age novel, which sees 18-year-old Canadian Penelope studying languages in Scotland. Shy, uncertain and on her own for the first time, the commitment phobe (who has a gaggle of uni friends that provide comic relief) is piecing together the reasons behind her parents’ divorce by connecting with her British father’s old friend from old-world money: famed writer Lord Elliott Lennox, who lives on a Scottish country estate with his kind, stay-at-home wife, Christina; their dashing university-age son, Sasha; and his cousin, George, who was adopted when her mother, the flighty and unreliable Margot, abandoned her to their care. When Margot’s buried secrets are finally spilled, Penelope learns how and why she fits into the family – and whether she wants to stay. 

 Zoomer talked to Knight about the mother octopus, why she couldn’t bring herself to say she was a fiction writer for the longest time and her big book news. 

 Rosemary Counter: I was just Googling you. You are really quite a Jill of all trades.

 Emma Knight: Oh, I know. I’d say the throughline is writing, but other than that, you’re right. Like Pen, I studied at the University of Edinburgh. Then I went to journalism school in Paris, but I didn’t know if I wanted to go into journalism or the business of journalism or something to do with diplomacy. I was just curious and following my curiosity, plus I wanted to stay in Paris as long as possible. My boyfriend – now my husband, who’s a filmmaker – wrote screenplays at the time. We were actually right in the middle of adapting a novel to the screen when our side project, a beverage business called Greenhouse, really took off. When you’re lucky like that, you just have to jump in, so the next decade went that way.

 RC: What’s Greenhouse for the unenlightened?

 EK: It’s an organic, plant-based, sustainable drink company that we opened in 2014. When I moved from France to L.A., there was a bit of culture shock, naturally. It struck me that there was a real all-or-nothing approach to healthy living; you have to cut out gluten, sugar, coffee – everything fun.

 RC: Sounds like the opposite of France, really.

 EK: Exactly. Greenhouse is all about balance, about adding a healthy thing in rather than taking everything else away. We make what we jokingly call “recreational juicing,” which is adding in a green juice instead of a third coffee to see how you feel. I did the marketing and tried to add a bit of an eye twinkle, a sense of humour. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.

 RC: That’s a whole other career! When do you possibly write?

 EK: I started with The Greenhouse Cookbook in 2017, so it was directly related, and then, when I was on mat leave with my first daughter in 2018, I did a follow-up book of recipes and essays on motherhood called How to Eat with One Hand. Whenever I found a minute, writing was all I wanted to do. Then my other daughter arrived, so I stopped for a while, and the two-year-old started asking me, “What do you do all day?” I realized I needed to get back to writing to set an example about how to be. If you do something in the margins of your life and then you have kids, the margins disappear. You either sacrifice that thing or find a way to prioritize.

 RC: Now we’re circling back to the octopus. Everyone makes a big deal about the male seahorse carrying babies, but he only does it for a few days. Nothing compared to that mother octopus.

 EK: I got a bit obsessed with maternal mortality when my second daughter was born at home, but a few days later I landed in hospital [with sepsis]. I had a fever, but was also feverishly obsessed with what was happening. When I got home, for five months I bounced my daughter in a bouncy chair with my foot while interviewing doctors, researchers, anyone who knew anything about maternal care in Canada. This started informing everything I wrote.

 RC: How did you move from journalism to fiction?

 EK: I started just writing some notes, phrases that stayed with me and quotes that popped to mind. I hadn’t yet admitted even to myself that I wanted to write fiction. I’d say “I’m writing a thing,” because I was writing on the sly and being very weird about it. Fiction is a lot freer, which some days is an adventure that’s so exciting. Other days, it just makes you want to hide in the corner, because you have nothing to possibly say. It’s a real confidence game.

 RC: You sound a lot like Penelope. How much of her is you and vice versa?

 EK: Well, she studies English and French, while I studied French and Spanish. I’m kidding. People who sort of know me always say I’m just like Pen; people who know me really well know that’s not true. There are some similarities, but there are some key differences. I don’t have any surprise relatives, as far as I know. Really, there’s a bit of me in all the characters: Alice, Fergus, Lord Lennox, Margot. They’re all me in different ways.

RC:  I heard The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is going to be a movie. What can you tell me about that?

EK: The rights have been optioned by MGM/Amazon, so that happened. 

RC: Jenna Bush Hager picked your novel for her Today Show book club this month. Congrats! How did  that happen and how does it feel? 

 EK: Thank you! I’m not sure how it happened. It hasn’t sunk in at all. I still can’t believe it. I’m over the moon and completely blown away.  

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.