Hero is a love story for our times: a novel that exposes the precious things women give up in order to be loved, and in order to be free.
‘The truest representation of the headiness and power of female longing I’ve ever read’ Kirsty Capes, author of Girls and Careless
‘Thrilling and dynamic’ Andrew McMillan, author of Pity and Playtime
She’s a waitress. He’s a chef. They used to be best friends, but now, they’re in love and living together in a studio apartment. She’s also a selkie, Odysseus, and a cowgirl called Quick Fingers. He’s a really good man.
When he asks her to marry him, Hero panics. She is lots of things but one thing she doesn’t want to be is anybody’s wife.
Drawing on a rich history of myth and legend, Hero is a story about what it means for women to be supporting characters in a world written by men. How can you be yourself when you are a product of other people’s imaginations? How can you love another person and be free?
‘The truest representation of the headiness and power of female longing I’ve ever read’ Kirsty Capes, author of Girls and Careless
‘Thrilling and dynamic’ Andrew McMillan, author of Pity and Playtime
She’s a waitress. He’s a chef. They used to be best friends, but now, they’re in love and living together in a studio apartment. She’s also a selkie, Odysseus, and a cowgirl called Quick Fingers. He’s a really good man.
When he asks her to marry him, Hero panics. She is lots of things but one thing she doesn’t want to be is anybody’s wife.
Drawing on a rich history of myth and legend, Hero is a story about what it means for women to be supporting characters in a world written by men. How can you be yourself when you are a product of other people’s imaginations? How can you love another person and be free?
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Reviews
A lyrical exploration of the love we deserve but rarely receive. Buckley's writing is alchemical, transforming myth into truth and pain into hope
This bold, clever novel sharply dissects gender, power, desire and control. Tender and acerbic, Hero recognises the sacrifices women must make to be the authors of our own narratives. Buckley unsettles the reader's gaze in her excavation of myth-making, asking how we might construct our own legends from the wreckage of our patriarchal history.
A thrilling and dynamic debut from a daring new voice
Katie Buckley has written a book that I now just want to give to every woman I know - especially those precious young women in my life. Hero made my heart run hot. And cold. Deliciously fierce, smart, insightful and deftly handled. It is hard to dissect gender and power, to be angry about the diminishing of women and their sense of self, without letting hatred get the upper hand - and none of us needs more hate in the world. But Buckley weaves anger with love, pain with a willingness to open up the heart again. It was a treasure. I loved it.
This book is everything. Intimate, tender and radiant, Hero is an unmissable, immaculate tapestry that fiercely imagines the stories we tell ourselves and the stories that make us.
The truest representation of the headiness and power of female longing I've ever read