The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

Could there be a more obnoxious student and what did Jake Bonner do to be punished teaching him?  That was Jake's thought at the writing workshop he is teaching.  Jake had a great first novel and was seen as an up and coming writer.  His second novel was a disappointment and since then he has been stalled.  To make ends meet, he teaches at a college that runs workshops for aspiring writers.

When he has an individual coaching session with the student, Jake is struck again by his confidence and his inability to see why he made those around him uncomfortable.  The man is sure that he has a bestseller in him but that everyone else at the workshop is determined to steal his idea.  He shares a little of the plot with Jake and Jake immediately sees that the idea is a potential bestseller.  Jake is jealous that such an unlikeable person does indeed have a can't fail idea.  But that's life and after the workshop the man recedes into the distance, overshadowed by the next class of aspiring writers and the next and the next.

But somewhere deep in Jake's mind, the thought of that student and his story remains.  He keeps waiting to see the book published but it never is.  His own writing is going even more poorly.  Finally one night he looks up the student only to see that the man died soon after the workshop, his great idea for a novel having died with him.  But has that idea died?  Jake struggles with his conscience but then forges ahead writing the novel that the student never did.

Two years later, Jake's life is completely different.  The novel he wrote is an immediate and tremendous success, vaulting Jake to the top of the publishing world.  He is now married to Anna whom he met on a book tour at the radio studio where she was a producer.  The couple is happy and wealthy or at least until the day Jake opens an email.  When he reads it, his blood runs cold.  Someone is writing him accusing him of plagiarism and of stealing the idea of his bestseller.  There are hints of exposure but no demands to start.  Will Jake lose everything his novel has brought him?

This novel has received a ton of buzz. It has blurbs from authors such as Stephen King and Meg Abbott and was an Amazon 2021 Book of the Month pick.  The pace is brisk and the reader is swept along in Jake's story, interested in his success and then wondering who is threatening him and how that will play out.  The exploration of plagiarism and how an author can turn from a success to a pariah overnight is explored.  This book is recommended for readers of psychological thrillers.