Yesterday - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1472242211 ISBN 13: 9781472242211

Publisher: Wildfire

Synopsis

High-concept meets hot-mess in this story of unreliable memory, betrayal, and murder.Imagine a stratified society where classes are divided not by wealth, nor religion, nor property, but instead by memory. Imagine a world where upper class Duos have two days worth of memories and plebeian Monos only one day worth. Imagine, too, that the only way to understand your spouse or your child or your mother is to jog your brain with daily e-diaries. And then imagine someone is murdered. How do you find a killer when all who are involved have their memories constantly reset?Claire and Mark are a surprising mixed-marriage that on the surface seems brilliant. Claire is a conscientious Mono housewife, Mark a novelist-turned-MP Duo on the political rise. But when a woman turns up dead, and she is then revealed to be Mark's mistress, their perfectly constructed life begins to fall apart. Told from four different perspectives--Mark, Claire, the detective on the trail, and the victim--Felicia Yap's staggeringly inventive debut leads us on a race against an ever resetting clock to find the killer.With the addicting cleverness of Before I Go to Sleep, the science fiction world-building of Minority Report and the relatable madness of Gone Girl, Yesterday is a smart, utterly unique, mind-blowing page-turner.

About this title

About the Author

Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur. She read biochemistry at Imperial College London, followed by a doctorate in history (and a half-blue in competitive ballroom dancing) at Cambridge University. She has written for The Economist and the Business Times. She has also been a radioactive-cell biologist, a war historian, a Cambridge lecturer, a technology journalist, a theater critic, a flea-market trader, and a catwalk model. Felicia lives in London and is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy's novel-writing program.

Review

"To tantalizing degrees, Yap reinvents the unreliable narrator by ingeniously weaving together true, imagined and fabricated back stories."―Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

"If you're into salacious plots, clever twists, and a mysterious murder, search no more."―Marie Claire

"Suspenseful, thought-provoking and uniquely relevant as it explores the pliability of memory, fidelity and factuality"―Family Circle

"Yap is a smart, swift plotter. . . . Remember her name."―Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

"In Yesterday, Felicia Yap's intricate and mind-bending debut, there's murder with malice aforethought afoot and an ambitious, chess-obsessed detective on the case. But in Yap's imagined world, unusual challenges abound... In a novel with not one but four unreliable narrators at its core, you pretty much just have to strap in and go along for the bumpalicious ride."―Daneet Steffans, Seattle Review of Books

"The thriller of the summer"―The Guardian [UK]

"[An] ingenious debut...Yap fully exploits her provocative premise."―Publishers Weekly [starred review]

"First novelist Yap has built an immersive, compelling, and terrifying world where the only truth people know is what they choose to tell themselves. For readers seeking a new spin on the unreliable narrator or fans of stories of self-deception such as Dan Chaon's Ill Will or E. Lockhart's We Were Liars."―Library Journal (starred review)

"Yap is venturing into new genre territory--dare I call it a neuro-sci-fi thriller? An ambitious and fascinating twist on the throwback detective story, where we can't guess who is the killer and who is the victim...and memory itself is on trial."―Sandra Block, author of Little Black Lies

"A compelling debut... The piecing together of disparate memories and the surprise ending to this speculative fiction world will thrill mystery fans."―Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Wildfire
• ISBN 10: 1472242211
• ISBN 13: 9781472242211
• Binding: Hardcover