This captivating literary debut and an epic love story for our times takes place over seven days as a woman wrestles with a marriage proposal and what it means for her personal and creative freedom. She&’s a waitress. He&’s a chef. They used to be best friends, but now, they&’re in love. She&’s also a selkie, a siren, Odysseus, Persephone, Helen of Troy, a Tudor queen, and a cowgirl called Quick Fingers. He&’s a really good man. When he asks her to marry him, Hero panics. She may be a lot of things but the one thing she doesn&’t want to be is anybody&’s wife. He gives her one week to decide, so to gather her thoughts, she begins to write him a letter. It is both the story of how they fell in love, and of who she is, and why marriage fills her with equal parts delight and terror. Drawing on a rich history of myth and legend, and yet unmistakably of the moment, Hero is a love 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?
