Yesterday

by Felicia Yap

Overview

How do you solve a murder when you can only remember yesterday?

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316465250
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur. She read biochemistry at Imperial College London, followed by a doctorate in history at Cambridge University. She has written for The Economist and the Business Times. She has also been a radioactive-cell biologist, a war historian, a Cambridge lecturer, a technology journalist, a theater critic, a flea-market trader, and a catwalk model. Felicia lives in London and is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy's novel-writing program.

What People are Saying About This

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 NEW YORKED - Rob Hart

"Yesterday is an inventive, wicked thriller with an addictive puzzle-box narrative. Every time I thought I had it figured out, Felicia Yap hits me with another twist."

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!"

author of SONORA - Hannah Lillith Assadi

"Felicia Yap's Yesterday is a story about the vulnerability of memory and how the past always returns to haunt us. An exhilarating revenge thriller, equal parts suspense and philosophical science fiction."

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."

Thriller Award-winning author of FAKE - Twist Phelan

"When it comes to memories, what do we choose to forget? To believe? Felicia Yap looks at these questions in Yesterday, an inventive, engrossing old-school murder mystery wrapped in a futuristic setting with a side of compelling love story and a killer twist at the end. Clever, unconventional, fast-paced, and above all engaging, Yesterday is a book to remember."

author of CROSSBONES YARD - Kate Rhodes

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

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."

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."

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/19/2017
Yap’s ingenious debut, a psychological thriller set around Cambridge, England, posits a radically different dual-class society: the elite duos, the 30% of the population who can remember the preceding two days of their lives after age 23, and the stigmatized monos, capable of recalling only the previous 24 hours of their lives after age 18. (Everyone is expected to fill in the gaps by studying the officially mandated daily entries in their iDiaries.) This creates unique challenges for Det. Chief Insp. Hans Richardson as he starts to investigate the apparent murder of stunning Sophia Ayling, whose body was found in the River Cam not far from the mansion of bestselling novelist and novice politician Mark Henry Evans (with whom, according to Sophia’s iDiary, she had a rather intimate acquaintance) and his dutiful mono wife of 20 years, Claire. Yap fully exploits her provocative premise: Richardson, a mono struggling to maintain his masquerade as a duo, delves into the trio’s pasts—insofar as they can be determined from potentially deceptive diary accounts. Though she’s less convincing with her characters’ psychology, this still makes for a deviously delicious diversion. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"To tantalizing degrees, Yap reinvents the unreliable narrator by ingeniously weaving together true, imagined and fabricated back stories."—Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

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

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

"Yap is a smart, swift plotter. . . . Remember her name."—Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

"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."—Daneet Steffans, Seattle Review of Books

"The thriller of the summer"—The Guardian [UK]

"[An] ingenious debut...Yap fully exploits her provocative premise."—Publishers Weekly [starred review]

"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)

"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."—Sandra Block, author of Little Black Lies

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

"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."—Omnivoracious

"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."—Andrew Pyper, bestselling author of The Demonologist

"An intriguing, fast-paced thriller that captivated me right from the start."—Kate Rhodes, author of Crossbones Yard

"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."—Hilary Davidson, author of Blood Always Tells

"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."—William Shaw, author of The Birdwatcher

"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."—Michael Cooper, author of Clawback

"A great murder mystery with a unique and unsettling twist. This book delighted and confounded me in equal measure!"—James Oswald, author of Natural Causes

"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."—Alex Gray, author of The Bird That Did Not Sing

From the Publisher

★ 05/15/2017
In a world where people are divided by how much they can remember, a single day's worth of memories separates the classes. The ruling Duos can retain two days' worth of memories at a time, while the Monos keep just one. Claire is a Mono married to Mark, a Duo author with political aspirations. Their mixed marriage is held up as an example of tolerance. Their life is far from perfect, though, as evidenced in their daily diary entries kept to make up for short memories. When the body of Mark's mistress is pulled from the river near their home, the police must work quickly to catch the killer before important memories are lost. The lead detective, who is working desperately to hide his own secrets, is convinced Mark is to blame. It soon becomes clear that no one is to be trusted, not even oneself. First novelist Yap has built an immersive, compelling, and terrifying world where the only truth people know is what they choose to tell themselves. VERDICT 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.—Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews