This strange and beautiful memoir follows the narrator on her path of grief and reflection as she walks around London. She last visited the city with her mother, who has since passed away. Along her walk, she reflects on her mother’s life in as much as a daughter can ever know her mother, as well as the nature of grief, being, and writing. The journey helps the narrator process her grief, frustration, and relationships in the memoir while connecting with the joy, resilience, stubbornness, and generosity that was her mother while she was alive.

Readers better hang on tight to this powerful, subtle narrative, lest it run away without them. The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken takes time to settle into, but by the end, it coalesces into a beautiful ode to the strong, difficult (often infuriating), and complex woman who was the narrator’s mother. The fragmented experience of grief comes across on the page in this beautifully rendered tribute to a woman the narrator describes as “she wasn’t special.” The specialness came from being a mother, who is all special to our daughters.