Hero A fierce and captivating literary love story for 2025

<p><b><i>Hero</i> 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.</b><br><br><b>'Pulls no punches... A fearless interrogation of female desire' <i>Observer</i></b><br><b>'The truest representation of the headiness and power of female longing I've ever read' Kirsty Capes, author of <i>Girls </i>and <i>Careless</i></b><br><b>'Thrilling and dynamic' Andrew McMillan, author of <i>Pity </i>and <i>Playtime</i></b><br><b>'Fierce and thrillingly subversive' <i>Financial Times</i></b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Drawing on a rich history of myth and legend, <i>Hero</i> 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?</p>