Book of the week: A Brief History of Motion by Tom Standage

Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2014 novel You Should Have Known – a murder story set on the Upper East Side – was turned into last year’s “must-watch” miniseries The Undoing, said Maureen Corrigan in The Washington Post. Now, she’s back with an equally propulsive work – a tale of “sticky fingers in the literary world”.

Jacob is a once-lauded author who now teaches “prose fiction” at a Vermont college. One day, a student tells him the plot of a novel he’s writing – and to Jacob’s surprise, it’s genuinely brilliant. When the student dies, Jacob incorporates the plot into his own novel – which, sure enough, becomes a massive bestseller.

At this point, the novel becomes a “Highsmithian psychological thriller”, said John Dugdale in The Sunday Times. Jacob starts receiving emails from someone calling himself “Talented Tom” – who knows about his theft. Turning detective, “he tries to identify his accuser in order to silence him”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Part page-turner, part literary satire, The Plot is an “unusual mix”, said Katie Rosseinsky in the London Evening Standard, but “a thrilling one”.

Faber 336pp £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99

The Week Bookshop

To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.