Trust

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Diaz, Hernan, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Diaz, Hernan
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

"An award-winning writer of absorbing, sophisticated fiction delivers a stylish and propulsive novel rooted in early 20th century New York, about wealth and talent, trust and intimacy, truth and perception. In glamorous 1920s New York City, two characters of sophisticated taste come together. One is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; the other, the brilliant daughter of penniless aristocrats. Steeped in affluence and grandeur, their marriage excites gossip and allows a continued ascent -- all at a moment when the country is undergoing a great transformation. This is the story at the center of Harold Vanner's novel Bonds, which everyone in 1938 New York seems to have read. But it isn't the only version. Provocative, propulsive, and repeatedly surprising, Hernan Diaz's TRUST puts the story of these characters into conversation with the "the truth"-and in tension with the life and perspective of an outsider immersed in the mystery of a competing account. The result is an overarching novel that becomes more exhilarating and profound with each new layer and revelation, engaging the reader in a treasure hunt for the truth that confronts the reality-warping gravitational pull of money, and how power often manipulates facts"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Excellent submitted by grimest on June 10, 2022, 3:23pm This book is not what is appears to be at first glance.

Very intelligent and interesting.

A book about a Book submitted by kath on August 27, 2022, 5:38pm This book has four sections. The first is a short book followed by sections about the book and the characters in the book. It is set as the world goes into the crash of wall street. The story is a very clever period piece.

Not a casual read submitted by leah karr on June 12, 2023, 8:32am Many loved this book. It’s highly requested with a long waitlist. Sorry, it just wasn’t my thing. It was very well written and interesting if period pieces set around the stock market and it’s lingo is for you.

Worth the wait submitted by amyrusch on June 20, 2023, 10:43pm I wasn't sure where the story was headed at times, but the storytelling pulled me in and transported me to a different era with distinct perspectives. The details kept me engaged in the story and I appreciated the complexities of stories within stories.

Trust submitted by leighsprauer on March 10, 2024, 7:51am This is one of the best fiction books I've read in a long time. Diaz begins with fictional author Harold Vanner's book "Bonds," which is interesting enough as it is. But then he follows this with the "true story" of the people on whom Vanner has based his book. This 'true story' is actually the accounts of three different people: a Wall Street tycoon who rose to prominence before the Depression, his biographer, and his wife.
First of all, the prose, or rather, the four different proses, since Diaz uses a different voice for each part of the book, was very well-done. It's apparently hard for authors to write convincingly and descriptively without being overly flowery, because so few can do it well. Diaz is one who can. One one hand, there aren't a lot of sentences or phrases that stop you in your tracks because of their genius - he's not, say, Orwell or Solzhenitzyn - but his writing doesn't make you want to cry in frustration either, which is my new (low) bar for fiction. It's refreshing to read someone who can write.
As if that weren't enough, his story and the method of telling it is also fantastic. Without spoiling the ending, it makes you question whose version of history you can trust, and the motives people have for propagating their version of the truth and squashing other versions. The farther I got into the book, the more fascinating it got, and the harder it was to put it down.