Yesterday

by Felicia Yap Narrated by Rory Kinnear, Indira Varma

Overview

In this heart-pounding mystery, a woman is found dead-but in a society where only the privileged have memories longer than a day, the chances of solving the crime seem futile.

Imagine a world in which classes are divided not by wealth or religion but by how much each group can remember. Monos, the majority, have only one day's worth of memory; elite Duos have two. In this stratified society, where Monos are excluded from holding high office and demanding jobs, Claire and Mark are a rare mixed marriage. Clare is a conscientious Mono housewife, Mark a novelist-turned-politician Duo on the rise. They are a shining example of a new vision of tolerance and equality-until...

A beautiful woman is found dead, her body dumped in England's River Cam. The woman is Mark's mistress, and he is the prime suspect in her murder. The detective investigating the case has secrets of his own. So did the victim. And when both the investigator's and the suspect's memories are constantly erased -- how can anyone learn the truth?

Told from four different perspectives, that of Mark, Claire, the detective on the case, 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 science-fiction world-building of Philip K. Dick and the twisted ingenuity of Memento, Yesterday is a thriller you'll never forget.

Editorial Reviews

author of Crossbones Yard Kate Rhodes

An intriguing, fast-paced thriller that captivated me right from the start.

author of Blood Always Tells Hilary Davidson

Hypnotic and haunting, Yesterday confidently blends suspense, noir, and science fiction to construct a truly original, breathtaking story. Felicia Yap's debut is a work of genius.

|Los Angeles Times

A poignant look at the fallibility of memory and how we can deceive ourselves into believing the most bald-faced lies to protect our own comfort and security.”

Chicago Tribune Lloyd Sachs

To tantalizing degrees, Yap reinvents the unreliable narrator by ingeniously weaving together true, imagined and fabricated back stories.

The Guardian [UK]

The thriller of the summer

author of The Birdwatcher William Shaw

Never has psychological crime fiction been so original, so witty and so inventive. This is an absolute firecracker of a read. I haven't enjoyed a debut this much in ages.

author of Clawback Michael Cooper

Felicia Yap takes a unique premise and rockets through this year's most clever storyline. Spectacular twists, characters as distinct as they are compelling, and a resolution absolutely no one will have seen coming make Yesterday propulsive read. Memory loss has never been so fun.

Booklist

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

Omnivoracious

Makes us think differently, and more deeply, about ourselves from the world we live in... it's a twisty, well-plotted thriller and an exploration of memory itself.

author of Little Black Lies Sandra Block

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.

author of The Bird That Did Not Sing Alex Gray

This was an amazing book, very original and despite challenging the reader's suspension of disbelief it drew me in very quickly. Terrific to find a book that can be classed as a crime thriller yet stand out from the crowd.

Marie Claire

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

Seattle Review of Books Daneet Steffans

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.

bestselling author of The Demonologist Andrew Pyper

At once a high-concept thriller with a sci-fi premise and an old-school noir, Felicia Yap's Yesterday is a tasty, satisfyingly grounded blend. A rich, rewarding debut that shows the ways that memory can betray us as painfully—and perhaps as inevitably—as those we love.

Family Circle

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

From the Publisher

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)

Seattle Times Moira Macdonald

Yap is a smart, swift plotter. . . . Remember her name.

author of Natural Causes James Oswald

A great murder mystery with a unique and unsettling twist. This book delighted and confounded me in equal measure!

Kirkus Reviews

2017-05-15
In a world where long-term memory is a thing of the past, investigating a murder becomes a daunting prospect indeed.In Yap's debut, set in 2015 England, a protein responsible for long-term memory is genetically inhibited for everyone when they're either 18 or 23, creating Monos and Duos, respectively. Everyone must keep a daily iDiary to consult regularly. Mark and Claire Evans have been married for 20 years, but they can't say it's a strong union. After all, homemaker Claire is a Mono, which means she can only remember what happened yesterday, and Mark, an author with political aspirations, is a Duo who can remember two days into the past. To most Duos, marrying a Mono is a quick way to become a social pariah, as Monos are largely considered to be less intelligent. When the body of stunning Sophia Ayling is discovered in the River Cam, Mark is questioned by the police because they find his name in her iDiary, setting off a disastrous chain of events. The narrative moves between past and present and back and forth among Mark, Claire, Sophia's iDiary entries, and the detective investigating the murder, DCI Hans Richardson. Not one of these characters is appealing. Mark is a selfish jerk; Claire is self-demeaning to the point of farce; Sophia, who is revealed to be a romantic (and wronged) blast from Mark's past, is cartoonish; and DCI Richardson's inner monologue is plodding, giving him something of a Columbo vibe, but not in a good way. The central conceit, surely meant to be edgy, doesn't add anything to a thoroughly unimaginative murder mystery, and if someone were up to no good, all they'd have to do is alter their diaries and no one would be the wiser, making the truth elusive and the possibility of justice remote. A twist in the final act can't save this over-the-top revenge tale.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170033348
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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