How Shark Heart Transformed Emily Habeck and Her Readers

Emily Habeck discusses her widely imaginative debut novel, Shark Heart, and how this writing project transformed her life and the lives of her readers.

It’s no secret that Shark Heart was my favorite debut of the year, and today’s meaningful author conversation only solidified this moving reading experience.

We discuss the unusual overlap to our love stories and the other surprising emotional connections readers have made to this imagined world.

Emily’s success in literary fiction was a surprise, but the reason for her jump from screenplay writing to a novel may surprise you with how she ended up here.

Drawing from her theatrical background, Habeck shares more about her unique story structure and how magical realism can still offer the reader a grounded experience.

The Best Magical Realism Books to Read Now

Discover today’s BONUS BOOK LIST with 29 magical realism books for your book stack this month.

Emily joins our patron space to discuss the Shark Heart ending with surprising candidness on some of this story’s more unusual paths she chose, but even more so, the ways she DIDN’T decide to go to get to this book’s ending.

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Meet Emily Habeck

Emily Habeck has a BFA in Theater from Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts as well as master’s degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and Vanderbilt’s Peabody College.

Her debut novel Shark Heart was a Book of the Month selection, a New York Times book review editor’s choice, and the #1 Indie Next pick for August 2023.

She is from Ardmore, Oklahoma and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Discover Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

A shocking discovery unfolds in Lewis and Wren’s first year of marriage, a time that should be rooted in great happiness. Lewis is diagnosed with a rare condition that gradually turns him into a shark in this story’s wildly imaginative plot.

As he struggles with his diagnosis and evolving transformation, Wren rises to meet these daily challenges in moving ways. She is no stranger to genetic mutations and how quickly her world can evolve and readers uncover a stunning backstory to Wren’s journey.

But as Lewis’s new shark existence takes over, readers are taken on an equally meaningful adventure with an unlikely accomplice that the reader will never expect.