HERO is a captivating literary debut and 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. 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, and yet unmistakeably of the moment, HERO is a love story and 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?