An audacious theft sets the plot in motion for this unputdownable literary thriller. Jacob Finch Bonner found modest success with his critically-lauded debut, but now he’s totally blocked. His agent keeps pestering him for the second novel he’s supposed to deliver, but the truth is he hasn’t written a word in years. He’s barely making ends meet, teaching unpromising students in a third-rate MFA program. But then he decides to do a terrible thing: he steals another writer’s brilliant story idea, writes the book, and zooms to the top of the bestseller list. He’s sure he’s gotten away with it. But then nine months later, he gets an ominous note that says only, “You are a thief.” (Content warnings include suicide, murder, and harm against children.) This twisty thriller about a washed-up novelist driven to desperate acts is a perfect summer page-turner. 

This is the decades-long story of a wealthy Brooklyn family and their triplets—the smart one, the weird one, and the girl—conceived with the help of IVF. For a bevy of reasons this family never quite gelled, and the siblings carry not a trace of affection for each other. Everything changes when the triplets reach college age, and their mother, yearning for some semblance of familial love, decides to thaw the fourth and only remaining embryo and have another child. The arrival of that child—the latecomer—blows up the whole family. An unexpected bonus was the thread of modern art that runs through the book: I googled so many artists and works along the way. Whispersync narration available.

This delightfully devious satire picks up where The Plot left off. When Anna Williams-Bonner is offered representation by her late husband’s agent to tell her own story, she pens The Afterword to clear his name of lingering plagiarism accusations. She’s excessively pleased with her talent for both writing and publicity, but then she receives an ominous missive at a Denver book signing, in which an anonymous someone threatens to topple everything she has so carefully built. Once threatened, Anna leans even further into Tom Ripley mode to turn the tables on her attackers and silence anyone who may know the truth of her past. Korelitz clearly enjoys skewering the publishing industry in this delicious send-up: it’s got fawning fans, obsequious publicists, self-important authors, and clever literary references in every chapter title. These terrible people and their unspeakable actions make for highly entertaining reading: this is the rare sequel that’s better than the original.