Behind Umbertha’s cover, crude novel hidden amidst books sold cheaply (8)
I believe the answer is:
undercut
'behind' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'umbertha's cover crude novel hidden amidst books sold cheaply' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'crude' is 'dercu' which is present in the answer.
'books' could be 'nt' (abbreviation for New Testament) and 'nt' is present in the leftover letters.
A single letter 'u' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for undercut that I've seen before include "Charge less than others" , "Beat (rival) on price" , "Sell cheaper than the competition" , "Sell for lower price than another" , "Weaken - part of a sirloin of beef" .)