The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken is a novel that insists it is not a memoir, but feels very much like a memoir (in the best way possible). An unnamed narrator — a writer who seems to be a lightly fictionalized version of McCracken — goes on a solo trip to London ten months after the death of her mother, in part to visit the places they had explored together and in part to find the courage she needs to write her mother’s story. Between wry accounts of her travels, the narrator pieces together snapshots of her mother, Natalie McCracken, to create a memoir of sorts. Natalie had surprisingly wide feet (she was less than five feet tall) and pitch-black, assertively curly hair, tough practicality as an editor and an inextinguishable optimism that helped her handle physical disabilities, and within her daughter’s stories she pulses with life. The Hero of This Book is a book about love and grief, resilience and joy. And, in the end, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the book is fiction or nonfiction because what’s important are the emotions the book imparts; as the narrator says herself, “What’s the difference between a novel and a memoir? I couldn’t tell you.”

If I had to pick one word to describe McCracken’s writing, it would be playful. She jumps between genres, speaks directly to the reader, and experiments with style; she’s thrown out the rulebook, and in doing so, has created a book that feels like a breath of fresh air. And, the best part is, McCracken makes it all feel accessible. The Hero of This Book may be a literary novel, but it’s funny and self-aware and highly readable. I loved the way the narrator offers up stories about her mother as if carefully cataloguing all the things she doesn’t want to forget; it’s powerful to watch the narrator process her grief through writing. And I loved how the narrator indirectly explores themes like privacy, body neutrality, and art through these stories. The Hero of This Book fascinated me and moved me, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I’d recommend this book to…

• Anyone who loves reading about mother-daughter relationships in all their complexity… it’s similar in theme to The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
• Anyone looking for wry, subtle, reflective fiction… it’s similar in tone to Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
• Anyone fascinated by a writer who places someone else at the heart of their memoir… it’s similar in style to At the Strangers’ Gate by Adam Gopnik