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A dazzling debut novel about mothers and sons, crime and consequence, unspoken family secrets, and being Jewish in America.
Elijah Mendes was hoping for a more triumphant return to Chicago. His mother, Eve, is dying of cancer, his business flamed out, and he has nowhere else to go. So he returns to Chicago feeling listless and shattered, worried about how he’s going to help his mother despite their chilly relationship. He finds some inspiration when he discovers that their family owns a Jewish cemetery and that a man he’s never heard of, his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan, is buried in a plot there. With a new sense of purpose—and an excuse to talk more deeply with his mother—Elijah begins pursuing a family mystery of extraordinary proportions.
Elijah discovers his grandfather Yitz, Eve’s father, was a powerful gangster in the 1920s. She was ashamed and never spoke about him to Elijah. As secrets unravel, the past and present become intertwined, and Yitz’s story forces Elijah and Eve to bond in ways they never have before and begin to accept each other, not as who they wish they were but as they both are.
Kaplan’s Plot is an astonishing balancing act between the ruthless and the tender, the superficial and the truth, by a writer with tremendous promise.
Jason Diamond is the author of the memoir Searching for John Hughes, essay collection The Sprawl, and co-author (with Nicholas Heller) of New York Nico's Guide to NYC. His work has been published by the New York Times, New York, The New Yorker, Esquire, The Paris Review, GQ, Poetry, Vanity Fair, and many other publications. Jason is a Cancer, was born in Skokie, IL., and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. Kaplan's Plot is his debut novel.
Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, a Reese’s Book Club Pick longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the award-winning novel Olga Dies Dreaming, named a Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR. She is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she was recognized as a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary.
