The Hero of This Book: A Novel
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
A Most Anticipated Book of Fall from: Los Angeles Times * Boston Globe * BookPage * Book Riot * The Millions * Publishers Weekly * LitHub * St. Louis Post Dispatch * Town & Country
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 art
Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, 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 up 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 such piercing love and tenderness that we are reminded that art is what remains when all else falls away.
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Elizabeth McCracken. (2022). The Hero of This Book: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Elizabeth McCracken. 2022. The Hero of This Book: A Novel. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book: A Novel. HarperAudio, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Elizabeth McCracken. The Hero of This Book: A Novel. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2022.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 3 | 3 |
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Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books, including The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, won three Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books, including The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, won three Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.
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A Most Anticipated Book of Fall from: Los Angeles Times * Boston Globe * BookPage * Book Riot * The Millions * Publishers Weekly * LitHub * St. Louis Post Dispatch * Town & Country
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 art
Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, 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 up 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 such piercing love and tenderness that we are reminded that art is what remains when all else falls away.
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August 8, 2022
McCracken (The Souvenir Museum) blurs fiction and memoir with a mischievous and loving portrait of her late mother. The unnamed narrator dislikes memoirs, and her mother, Natalie, whom she revered, “distrusted” them. So the narrator turns to fiction, claiming that all it takes to leap from the dreaded realm of grief memoirs is to make a few things up, such as the desk clerk at the London hotel she checks in to in 2019, a year after Natalie’s death, to sort through her thoughts and feelings. Despite her avowed opposition to memoir, she unleashes a flood of details about Natalie while wandering around London, describing how the short Jewish woman’s cerebral palsy made walking a struggle, and how she had to cultivate a stubborn nature to ignore the “muttering” of those who doubted her potential. (She ended up a beloved magazine editor in Boston.) The narrator lists a few made-up details that diverge from McCracken’s own life: “the fictional me is unmarried, an only child, childless,” and she notes how novelists are free to kill off characters as needed. What emerges alongside this love letter to the restive Natalie is an engaging character study of a narrator who views everything through the lens of fiction (“Your family is the first novel that you know”). It’s a refreshing outing, and one that sees McCracken gleefully shatter genre lines. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.
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- content: When is a memoir not a memoir? In this audiobook, clearly labeled a novel, that question lurks around every corner. McCracken narrates her work with such plainspoken simplicity that the story seems real--as if the author were confiding to listeners. McCracken's protagonist reflects on the life of her beloved late mother while traveling alone to London. The flashbacks and reminiscences are so detailed and so carefully delivered that it seems impossible they can't be true memories. McCracken's voice is accessible and warm. Her delivery is forthright and without any self-consciousness. Sometimes the pensive sections become difficult to follow, but McCracken's skill as writer and performer is significant and worth a listen. Novel? Memoir? This is simply a moving story anyone can appreciate. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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March 1, 2023
The unnamed narrator of this story is on a trip to London to heal after the death of her beloved mother 10 months prior. The writer never wrote about her parents while they were alive because "they were odd and extraordinarily private." Now she is careful to say that she is not writing a memoir, despite spending much of her time traveling down memory lane. McCracken's (The Souvenir Museum) introspective, thoughtful novel bends the space between fiction and memoir, resulting in a creation that is brilliant, if occasionally confusing. The writer in this novel resembles McCracken in many ways, and the parents sound a lot like her actual parents. In particular, the mother has a zest for life and ignores her physical limitations, despite having mobility issues and using canes to walk since youth. McCracken reads the audio, allowing listeners to hear her working through her grief as she talks of touching moments and remembers the slightly dysfunctional aspects of her upbringing. VERDICT A surprising and thought-provoking audio, narrated with genuine emotion. Listeners won't want to miss this tale of a heroic mother who raised an amazing writer.--Christa Van Herreweghe
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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A Most Anticipated Book of Fall from: Los Angeles Times * Boston Globe * BookPage * Book Riot * The Millions * Publishers Weekly * LitHub * St. Louis Post Dispatch * Town & Country
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 art
Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, 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 up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed.
The woman, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary—her brilliant wit,...
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