The Great American Novel has become a somewhat nebulous term. You’ll never hear the same definition twice. What makes it great? What makes it American? I’ve started deferring to a simpler, more all-encompassing term, The Next Big Thing.

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest was The Next Big Thing…

Jonathan Franzen’s Corrections was The Next Big Thing…

George Saunders’ The Tenth of December was The Next Big Thing…

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joshua Cohen’s Book of Numbers.

Book of Numbers opens with the enigmatic billionare founder and CEO of Tetration, the world’s most powerful tech company, being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, upon which he hires a failed novelist, Josh Cohen, to ghostwrite his memoirs. This tech mogul, known only as “Principal”, takes Josh deep into his own mind, and outlines the history of Tetration, which started by revolutionizing the search engine and later ventured into smartphones, computer manufacturing, and the surveillance of American citizens. Accompanying Josh on a mind-bending world tour of local Tetration offices, from Palo Alto to Dubai, Principal soon initiates Josh into the secret pretext of the autobiography project, and the life-or-death stakes that surround its publication.

Joshua Cohen is the book critic for Harper’s and the author of several books, including Four New Messages and Attention! A (Short) History. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The Forward, The Believer, the New York Observer, the London Review of Books, N+1, and elsewhere. In other words, he is connected. He’s a writer’s writer, that guy who other authors want to see do well.

Look for BOOK OF NUMBERS June 30!