Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

 

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傑克曾是文壇看好的年輕小說家，第一本出版的作品即廣受好評。如今，他是寫作班的老師，為保留殘存的自尊而死命掙扎。因為他已經多年沒有創作──遑論出版了。他一位狂妄的學生伊凡揚言不需傑克的援手，因為他目前正在寫作的絕對會成為暢銷書，傑克本來對學生大放厥辭的反應是嗤之以鼻，但他聽到故事大綱後卻為之改觀。

身處日漸走下坡的事業軌道，傑克悶悶不樂等待伊凡橫空出世的處女作，但一直沒有出現。後來，他發現伊凡竟已死亡，想必是沒有完成作品。傑克心想翻身的機會終於出現。

不過短短幾年的時間，所有伊凡先前的預言一一實現，然而享受爆紅滋味的作者卻是傑克。靠著剽竊伊凡構想出版的書名利雙收，傑克的讀者遍佈全世界。不過，就在他登上全新燦爛寫作生涯高點的時候，收到一封駭人的匿名電子郵件：你是小偷……

——中文簡介摘自春天出版《剽竊》