The Hero of this Book

'A sublime gift' MEG MASON. A taut, ground-breaking new novel about a writer's relationship with her larger-than-life mother - and about the very nature of writing. Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book. walks across London on a quiet Sunday. The city was a favourite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself recalling all that made her complicated mother extraordinary. Even though the woman, a writer, wants to respect her mother's nearly pathological sense of privacy, she must decide whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal. A New Yorker. , Time. , Washington Post. , Oprah Daily. and NPR Book of the Year. 'I absolutely loved it. A moving portrayal of daughterhood. suffused with warmth and love'. MEGAN HUNTER, author of The Harpy. 'Confirms McCracken as among the finest contemporary chroniclers of everyday life. wonderful'. GUARDIAN. 'Tender, funny, heartbreaking. a writer who always delights'. RUMAAN ALAM, author of Leave the World Behind.