The Story of Jane — Catherine Cusset

Meet Jane. A professor at an academically outstanding college, she is recently divorced and feeling somewhat unsure, especially in terms of the opposite sex, having had several recent attempts to befriend men go awry.

As she leaves her apartment one day, she discovers a package addressed to her in the foyer of her building. Opening it, she discovers that it's a novel -- entitled The Story of Jane. As she starts to read, she realizes that the novel is all about her -- her and her love life, or failure at love, to be more exact.

There's no name on the manuscript, no return address on the package. Suddenly uneasy and feeling much too exposed, she retreats to her apartment and sets about reading. At various points during the afternoon she stops to wonder -- sometimes in amazement, often in anger -- who could have known her well enough to write this story of her life. And where could that person be now?

As we peer over Jane's shoulder, reading along with her, we learn all about her life since arriving at Devayne University. We see her affairs, her marriage to the very sexy Eric, which ends in divorce, her disastrous friendship with the already married Francisco. One by one, Jane considers the men she has known, sure that one of them is the obsessed author and more than a little afraid that she might be in danger.

A startlingly fresh and innovative novel, The Story of Jane takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and revelations as the layers of Jane's life are peeled away and the anonymous author becomes known.