The Make-Believe

An extraordinary memoir - propulsive, immersive; like nothing I have ever read before. I read it in one day and thought about it for weeks afterwards. – Dolly Alderton, author of EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVEThe Make-Believe is a page-turning and generous book that is intensely concerned with what it means to be human. Hannah Murray is a masterful storyteller. – Rebecca Watson, author of I WILL CRASHI was deeply moved and compelled by this vital, brave, memoir. Murray’s account of her experience is intensely open-hearted and lyrical, depicting just how porous the boundaries and realities of our lives can become. A stunning achievement. – Sophie Mackintosh, author of CURSED BREADA mind-blowing memoir, exquisitely told. * Red Magazine *A memoir of real literary power that wields a writer’s full toolkit, with finger-biting dramatic irony, vivid sensory evocation and pithy statements of uncomfortable truth. The premise is fascinating, but her execution is what makes this story uniquely compelling. – Naoise Dolan, author of THE HAPPY COUPLEThis book is brilliantly and beautifully written, fast-flowing, deeply felt and observed. Hannah Murray is a writer of tremendous skill and fearlessness. – Daisy Johnson, author of EVERYTHING UNDER and SISTERSReading The Make-Believe, I shivered as I recognized the terror and seduction entwined in Hannah Murray’s story. This memoir is harrowing, yes—but it is also exquisitely written, tracing the fracture of a mind and the fierce, fragile work of reclaiming it. The cult memoir world needed this book. – Daniella Mestynaek Young, author of UNCULTUREDIn The Make-Believe, Hannah Murray traces the subtle architecture of belief: how need becomes trust, and trust becomes surrender. What makes this memoir so remarkable is what Murray resists—she does not cast herself as a victim or offer easy lessons. Instead, she reveals, moment by moment, how a person in search of healing can gradually lose herself. The power lies in the restraint, in the questions left unanswered. This is a book about the cost of wanting to be saved. – Ruth Wariner, New York Times bestselling author of THE SOUND OF GRAVEL

Hannah Murray worked as an actor for over a decade, starring in E4’s Skins and HBO’s Game of Thrones. She studied English at Cambridge University and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. The Make-Believe is her first book.