The Grand Scheme of Things

In this acerbic if uneven debut, Jay turns a fiercely critical eye on entrenched racism in the contemporary British theater scene. Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo, an immigrant from Botswana who goes by Eddie, has written a dystopian play about race and national identity inspired by the impending Brexit referendum. Though she was the most promising student in her creative writing program, established theater agents decline to represent her. She then has a fateful coffee shop encounter with Hugo Lawrence Smith, a disaffected white trust funder and recent law school graduate who once aspired to the stage, and the two conspire to submit Eddie’s play to Britain’s most prestigious playwrighting competition under Hugo’s name. Initially, their goal is to expose the industry’s hypocrisy, but both Eddie and Hugo grow increasingly entangled in the charade. The second-person narration, addressed in turn from Eddie and Hugo to the other, feels a bit like a writing exercise, and subplots involving Hugo’s half sister and Eddie’s mom are underdeveloped. But the novel’s premise is provocative, and the characters frequently offer insightful commentaries on authorship, identity, and cultural gatekeeping. Fans of R.F. Kuan’s Yellowface should take note. (Feb.)