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Description
Three writers, two marriages, one affair—infinite sides to the story. A beguiling nesting doll of a novel about husbands and wives, the battles between creative ambition and love, and the timeless question of who owns a story. Named a best book of the summer by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Shondaland, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Bustle, and Literary Hub.
Sal Cannon is a struggling magazine writer, dealing with the professional humiliation of being conned by a serial liar. She’s close to rock-bottom when she reads a short story by Martin Keller, the much older author she met at a literary event years ago. Much to her surprise, the piece is about her and their brief encounter. Desperate to read more of the unpublished novel from which the story is taken, she is shocked to learn that Martin has died. But as her own life and relationships fall apart, Sal makes a rash decision: she will seek out Martin’s widow, Moira, and convince her to let Sal read the rest of Martin’s novel. Her novel.
Over a single summer, Sal will insert herself into Moira’s life. Or is it the other way around? As Sal sifts through Martin’s papers and learns more about Moira, she discovers the larger, ever-shifting story of not just one marriage but two, as she unravels the secret histories of those closest to Martin Keller.
The Mythmakers is a seductive nesting doll of a book that grapples with perspective and memory, as well as the battles between creative ambition and love. It’s a novel about the trials and tribulations of finding out who you are, and those moments when the trajectories of our lives are forever altered.
Contributor Notes
KEZIAH WEIR is a senior editor at Vanity Fair. The Mythmakers is her first novel. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Elle, Esquire, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She grew up in California and British Columbia, and currently lives in Maine with her husband and dog.
Awards
- Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
Editorial Review
Winner of the 2024 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize • One of Harper Bazaar's Best Books of 2023
“The Mythmakers is a smart, compelling novel, one which seems to change shape the further one reads, which serves to question the very act—and beliefs—of reading and writing.”
—Toronto Star
“Every once in a while, a novel appears that grips you and confides in you as an old friend would. Keziah Weir’s The Mythmakers is not only a love letter to the mysteries that bind us, but it’s also a remarkable portrayal of how we move forward, stumble, get up again and rebuild our lives when we need to the most. Suspenseful, elegant, so full of life and the ghosts we carry, this is, quite simply, beautiful storytelling.”
—Paul Yoon, author of Run Me to Earth
“Keziah Weir’s debut novel takes an age-old literary question—is this fiction actually based off reality?—and twists it into a compelling story about art, perspective, and the line between inspiration and transgression.”
—Harper’s Bazaar
“A beautiful twisting investigation of the messy entanglements between writing, love, marriage, and affairs of the heart. The Mythmakers is a captivating, page-turning novel about the romance and trials of art-making that leaves us wondering who has the right to a story, and if we can ever really know the truth.”
—Cedar Bowers, author of Astra
“A novel about ambition—art-making, self-making—and the ways in which, when questions of gender and desire and love enter the scene, lies and truths can tangle as intricately as the links of a fine necklace. The Mythmakers glitters with suspense, and it held me rapt. Keziah Weir has arrived.”
—Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson
“Keziah Weir’s The Mythmakers is a wildly inventive, thought-provoking page-turner filled with luminous language and resonant characters. It tackles the weightiest of subjects—love, art, inspiration, death—with grace and wit. This is the rare novel that will stay with me for a very, very long time.”
—Tara Conklin, author of The Last Romantics
