Mariana Zapata

Readers call her the queen of the slow burn and she has never discouraged it. The books run long, the couple takes most of the page count to arrive anywhere, and the pleasure lies in accumulation rather than in event.

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me puts an assistant opposite the professional footballer who barely speaks to her. From Lukov with Love does something comparable with figure skating and mutual loathing. Zapata self-published throughout and built her readership by word of mouth, which suits books that ask this much patience of the people reading them.