By Carly Smith
In A Hero of Our Time, Osman Shah works at an EduTech startup. He and one of his colleagues, Nena, work closely together. The two not only tag-team work projects, but also obsess over another colleague named Olivia Robinson. Olivia is a high-up overachiever whose past is questionable and whose personality is thrilling to try to understand. Superficially, Olivia aims to expand diversity in her workplace, but in reality she has a strong desire to gain as much power as possible. The plot of A Hero of Our Time had the potential to be exciting and thought-provoking but fell short, leaving me unsatisfied.
Osman is a thirty-eight-year-old man whose strong work ethic has landed him a role at a successful EduTech company. His father, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship, is deceased, and his mother, with whom he shares a unique connection, is slowly declining in her health. With his mind often on work, even when he is not on the clock, Osman fascinates himself with colleague Olivia: she is fierce, manipulative, insincere, and will stop at nothing to move up in the EduTech world. Osman, with the help of other colleagues, works hard to find out as much as possible about Olivia, stay several steps ahead of her at all times, and subsequently dismantle her role and her power.
I enjoyed the main storyline in this book. At times it was refreshing, made me second-guess my predictions, and, in general, it covers a subject which should be brought into light more often which is the act of people and businesses creating a diverse panel not for genuine inclusion and diversity but just to look good on paper. However, I struggled to finish the book for several reasons. First, I had difficulty picking up a particular tone from the characters . They had flat interactions with one another and it was difficult for me to capture their passions, happiness, and emotions. This left me reading the pages robotically and I was therefore unable to get fully immersed in the chapters. Second, I found Ruthnum used too many descriptors, so that the language became awkward, and it was hard to know which parts required the most concentration. Overall, it was challenging to connect with the main characters and empathize, two things that I find very important when reading a piece of fiction.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.