A New York Times Editorsâ Choice
Named a Best New Book of the Year by Harperâs Bazaar
Named a Best Book of the Summer by Shondaland, SheReads, The Boston Globe, Harperâs Bazaar, and Readerâs Digest
From an acclaimed senior editor at Vanity Fair comes a âlaudableâ (The New York Times) debut novel about a young journalist who discovers a short story thatâs inexplicably about her lifeâleading to an entanglement with the authorâs widow, daughter, and former best friend.
Sal Cannonâs life is in shambles. Her relationship is crumbling, and her career in journalism hits a low point after itâs revealed that her profile of a playwright is full of inaccuracies. Sheâs close to rock-bottom when she reads a short story by Martin Keller: a much older author she met at a literary event years ago. Much to her shock, the story is about her and the moment they met. When Sal learns the story is excerpted from his unpublished novel, she reaches out to the storyâs editorâonly to learn that Martin is deceased. Desperate to leave her crumbling life behind and to read the manuscript from which the story was excerpted, Sal decides to find Martinâs widow, Moira.
Moira has made it clear that she doesnât want to be contacted. But soon Sal is on a bus to upstate New York, where she slowly but surely inserts herself into Moiraâs life. Or is it the other way around? As Sal sifts through Martinâs papers and learns more about Moira, the question of muse and artist arisesâagain and again. Even more so when Martinâs daughterâs story emerges. Who owns a story? And who is the one left to tell it?
The Mythmakers is a nesting doll of a book that grapples with perspective and memory, as well as the batteries between creative ambition and love. Itâs a âpage-turnerâ (theSkimm) about the trials and tribulations of finding out who you are, at any stage in your life, and how inspiration might find you in the strangest of places.