The Plot

December 1, 2020

Author of You Should Have Known, basis of the new HBO show The Undoing, Korelitz returns with the story of washed-up novelist Jake Finch Bonner, now teaching in a minor MFA program. When full-of-himself student Evan Parker boasts that he's devised an unbeatable plot, Jake has to agree--and then steals the plot after Evan's untimely death. But can he get away with the theft? With a 200,000-copy first printing.

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March 1, 2021
A washed-up novelist finds bestselling success with a story purloined from an arrogant student. What could possibly go wrong? Pretty much everything in Korelitz's satisfyingly twisty thriller. But at first, when Jacob Finch Bonner learns about the sudden death of Evan Parker, the jerk who'd swaggered into his office at a 10th-rate low-residency MFA program and shared the outrageous plot premise that was going to make him rich and famous, it seems as though taking the idea and making it his own is perfectly safe. Three years later, the resulting novel, Crib, has sold 2 million copies in nine months, and Jake has met wonderful Anna Williams, the program director of a radio show he visits while on tour in Seattle. But then he gets an email from TalentedTom@gmail.com proclaiming, "You are a thief," and his new life threatens to unravel. Korelitz teasingly alternates the story of Jake's desperate quest to find out who this anonymous accuser is and how he knows about Evan's idea with chapters from Crib--just enough to stoke curiosity about what exactly this fabulous plot device is. Alert readers will guess some of the twists in advance as Jake follows the trail to Evan's family home in Vermont and slowly realizes Evan didn't invent this shocking story but lifted it from the real life of someone who is very, very angry about it; Korelitz plays fair and plants clues throughout. But only the shrewdest will anticipate the jaw-dropping final revelation. (Hint: Think about those Talented Mr. Ripley references.) Korelitz, who demonstrated in Admission (2009) and You Should Have Known (2014) that she knows how to blend suspense with complex character studies, falls a little short on the character end here; Jake is a sympathetic but slightly bland protagonist, and Anna has the only other fully developed personality. No one will care as the story hurtles toward the creepy climax, in the best tradition of Patricia Highsmith and other chroniclers of the human psyche's darkest depths. Gripping and thoroughly unsettling: This one will be flying off the shelves.

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May 1, 2021
A decade after his well-regarded first novel, Jacob Finch Bonner is stuck teaching at a third-rate creative writing program in northern Vermont. When an arrogant student, Evan Parker, declares he has a plot in mind that he is sure will lead to a big publishing deal, Jacob is shocked to find that he agrees. Two years later, Jacob is at a precarious moment in his career. Wondering whatever happened with Evan and his book, he learns of his death. Desperate for success, Jacob decides that Evan's plot should not go to waste. Jacob's book, pointedly titled Crib, becomes an international sensation. When he receives a message accusing him of being a thief, his efforts to unmask the sender sets his own remarkable plot in motion. Korelitz, author of the smash-hit You Should Have Known (2014), effortlessly deconstructs the campus novel and, much like Michael Chabon in Wonder Boys (1995), acerbically mocks the publishing industry. Fearless Korelitz presents a wry and unusual joyride of a thriller full of gasp-inducing twists as it explores copyright, ownership, and the questionable morals of writers.

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