The Hero of This Book

- Blurb -

A taut, groundbreaking new novel from bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken, about a writer' s relationship with her larger-than-life mother - and about the very nature of writing, memory, and loveA taut, groundbreaking new novel from bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken, about a writer' s relationship with her larger-than-life mother - and about the very nature of writing, memory, and loveTen months after her mother' s death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favourite of her mother' s, and as the narrator walks from Clerkenwell to the London Eye, from Tate Modern to the Bridge Theatre, she finds herself reflecting on her mother' s life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future- back in New England, the family home is now for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed. The woman, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary - her brilliant wit, her generosity, her unbelievable obstinacy, her sheer will in seizing life despite physical difficulties - and finds herself wondering how her mother had endured. Even though she wants to respect her mother' s nearly pathological sense of privacy, the woman must come to terms with whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal. The Hero of This Book is a searing examination of grief and renewal, and of a deeply felt relationship between a child and her parents. What begins as a question of filial devotion ultimately becomes a lesson in what it means to write. At once comic and heartbreaking, with prose that delights at every turn, this is a novel of piercing love and tenderness.