The genesis of The Refuge was a request from the publisher, Doubleday, for a novel set in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Hughes had by that time been living in Edmonton for over twenty-three years and had raised her children there. She had a wealth of experiences to draw upon, from bicycle rides into the river valley to an understanding of how long a car ride from the south side over a bridge to the northwest quarter of the city would seem to a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.

Monica Hughes remembers the very moment that was the beginning of her novel The Refuge: "When my children were very small they came running into the house in great excitement one day," she said in a personal interview. "We've found a secret place behind Campbell's Furniture," they told her. "We're going to call it Campbell's Bush." They wanted to tell...