The Grand Scheme of Things

Two unlikely friends hatch an extraordinary scheme to expose the theater world in this ＂layered, hyperaware, and as entertaining as it is incendiary＂ (Mateo Askaripour, NewYorkTimes bestselling author) debut novel exploring perception, redemption, and how success shapes us all.

＂American Fiction meets Queenie: The Grand Scheme of Thingsskewers racism in the arts, while humorously and honestly exploring the importance of community, and what we’ll do for love and success＂ (Jenna Clake, author of Disturbance).

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, 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.

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.