The Plot

A Novel

By: Jean Hanff Korelitz

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

"I think Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot is one of the best novels I’ve ever read about writers and writing. It’s also insanely readable and terrifying. The suspense quotient is through the roof...It’s remarkable." (Stephen King)

Hailed as "breathtakingly suspenseful", Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot is a propulsive audiobook about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it.

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then...he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: But it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised, and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an email arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books

"Narrator Kirby Heyborne maintains the brisk pace and firm tension of what promises to be one of the summer's most talked about suspense novels." (AudioFile Magazine)

©2021 Jean Hanff Korelitz (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2021: Long-listed

New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2021: Long-listed

Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2021: Long-listed

Twists and turns

If you want an engaging story that takes you on a twisting journey; this book is for you. You get to know the characters…or so you think. Stay with it. It can seem like you get the point, but hang in there, because you don’t.

predictable

only finished it because I wanted to make sure I was right. narrator was ok.

Fun Whodunit, Great for Vacation Listening

A failing novelist finds inspiration that pulls him into a tangle of intrigue.

Just long enough, just twisty enough, pick-up-and-put-downable. Good for a summer read. Not hard to figure out, but the author keeps the journey interesting. The narration isn't great, but Heyborn does a very good job with accents and characterizations.

Twist wasn’t very twisty

I identified the twist early on but thought I must be wrong since even Stephen King said it was well crafted. I think, though, that it was still well told and the characters were well developed, especially Jake. Sort of like “The Undoing” I spent a lot of time hoping it wasn’t what I thought..

Wish it were read by someone else

The reader sounded like a 1970s newscaster reading copy. Would have enhanced the story so much to have a gifted actor reading.