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.

'Fierce and thrillingly subversive' Financial Times
'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?

"Expertly crafted. Buckley painfully understands the intricacies of love, its floating ecstasy, unbearable weight - and what happens when we yearn to run from it" - Image