The Grand Scheme of Things: A Novel

· Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Ony Uhiara and Sam Stafford
Audiobook
11 hr 8 min
Unabridged
Eligible
This book will become available on February 25, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.

About this audiobook

Two unlikely friends hatch an extraordinary scheme to expose the theater world in this wildly entertaining and sharply observed debut novel exploring perception, redemption, and how success shapes us all.

Meet Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo. Or, for short, Eddie: an aspiring playwright who dreams of making it big in London’s theater world. But after repeated rejections from white talent agents, Eddie suspects her non-white sounding name might be the problem.

Enter Hugo Lawrence Smith: good looking, well-connected, charismatic and…very white. Stifled by his law degree and looking for a way out of the corporate world, he finds a kindred spirit in Eddie after a chance encounter at a cafe.

Together they devise a plan, one which will see Eddie’s play on stage and Hugo’s name in lights. They send out her script under his name and vow to keep the play’s origins a secret until it reaches critical levels of success. Then they can expose the theater world for its racism and hollow clout-chasing. But as their plan spins wildly out of control, Eddie and Hugo find themselves wondering if their reputations, and their friendship, can survive.

About the author

Born in Botswana and raised in England, Warona Jay studied law at the University of Kent and King’s College London before switching to a creative writing PhD at Brunel. As a teen, she was shortlisted for the Sony Young Movellist of the Year Award judged by Malorie Blackman, and more recently, in 2020 she was longlisted for Penguin Random House’s WriteNow program. The Grand Scheme of Things is her debut novel.

Listening information

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