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Jean Hanff Korelitz, author of The Sequel

Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity. But for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. When Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly...Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do?

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

October 2024

There are times when you would love for an author to write a sequel, but that often does not happen. So when I saw that Jean Hanff Korelitz had written a sequel to THE PLOT (which also was a Bets On selection when it came out in May 2021), I was looking forward to seeing what came next. If you have not read the first book and are planning to do so, stop right here as there is a plot spoiler ahead.

Anna Williams-Bonner is the widow of Jacob Finch Bonner, who came to one swift demise in THE PLOT. Now, in THE SEQUEL, she has taken on the mantle of literary widow. With persuasion, she has written a book of her own called The Afterword, which sees its own success.