A Greek vase painting depicting the decapitation of Medusa inspired Aris Fioretos to write this book. He follows the ancient narrative image by image to describe the characteristics of modern storytelling. Knowledgeable and elegant, he navigates through world literature: from ancient myth to Proust and Nabokov. In doing so, the novelist Fioretos, who also discusses his own writing, forms a productive alliance with the theorist: his essay on the art of the novel is tangible literary scholarship, and in its narrative form and exceptional design, it is itself an aesthetic pleasure.