Trust by Hernán Díaz

Welcome, or Welcome back! My name is Amanda and this is where I share spoiler-free book reviews and other bookish things. Not every book is my cup of tea – and that’s ok. Even if I didn’t like it, I attempt to find readers that would. Thanks for visiting. Let’s get Smitten For Fiction.

I read Trust by Hernán Díaz because it was recommended by, The Book Bully, one of my favourite booktubers. I’m so glad I found her channel because I’m unsure if I would have picked this up based on the blurb. I borrowed this one from my local library and read it in July.

Booker Prize Longlist Nominee 2022
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2023

“Buzzy and enthralling …A glorious novel about empires and erasures, husbands and wives, staggering fortunes and unspeakable misery…Fun as hell to read.” —Oprah Daily

“A genre-bending, time-skipping story about New York City’s elite in the roaring ’20s and Great Depression.”—Vanity Fair

“A riveting story of class, capitalism, and greed.” —Esquire

“Exhilarating.” —New York Times

About The Book 📚

Title: Trust

Author: Hernán Díaz

Publication Date: 2022

Publisher: Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 416

Content Warnings: mental illness, death, misogyny, terminal illness, alcohol

Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. May include profanity, violence, sexual situations, or drug use.

About The Author

Hernan Díaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of two novels translated into thirty-five languages. He is the recipient of the John Updike award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, given to “a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.”

His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and it was the winner of the Saroyan International Prize, the Cabell Award, the Prix Page America, and the New American Voices Award, among other distinctions. It was also a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year and one of Lit Hub’s 20 Best Novels of the Decade.

Trust, his second novel, received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller, the winner of the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize, among other nominations. It was listed as a best book of the year by over thirty publications and named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and Time magazine, and it was one of The New Yorker’s 12 Essential Reads of the Year. One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022, Trust is currently being developed as a limited series for HBO.

His stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Granta, The Yale Review, Playboy, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere.

He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

He holds a PhD from NYU, edits an academic journal at Columbia University, and is also the author of Borges, between History and Eternity. https://www.hernandiaz.net/bio

My Review

› Trust is a novella, a manuscript, a memoir and a diary. I don’t want to say too much about the parts of the book because it will be more fun for you to discover things as you read. The novella is called Bonds by Harold Vanner. It shows how Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen became one of the richest families in America. The manuscript is called My Life by Andrew Bevel. This is an unfinished autobiography of Andrew Bevel that takes place in 1938. The memoir is called A Memoir, Remembered by Ida Partenza. Partenza is a ghostwriter tasked with crafting Bevel’s autobiography. The diary is called Futures by Mildred Bevel. This is where we learn about Bevel’s wife from her point of view.

› It inspires a lot of thought about money, where it comes from, and who it benefits. It talks about history, who has been the voice of history, and what voices have been left out. It’s about a well-known time in history and Díaz really plays on the myths surrounding money.

› It’s ironic for this novel to be called Trust when you can’t trust any of the characters or stories you read. Who is telling the truth? How do we know when something is a historical fact? How is it like fiction?

› Characters: 9
I’ll never forget these stories or characters, however, I would have liked more diversity.

› Atmosphere: 10
I liked the commentary about women’s voices – or lack thereof.
“Later, over the years, both at work and in my personal life, I have had countless men repeat my ideas back to me as if they were theirs – as if I would not remember having come up with those thoughts in the first place.”

› Writing Style: 10
I adore the writing. There were so many sentences that I would re-read.
“But here the E bell is louder + more sustained than the others. And a tad flat, in the most exquisite way. If the call/response motif contains our history, that strange lingering 9th is the sound of our musical future. Grazing against the D, it makes the air oscillate.”

› Plot: 8
Okay so…The first 20% I’m thinking…this book is boring. I don’t understand why so many people said it was terrific…then you realize what’s happening and…jaw drop.

› Intrigue: 8

› Logic: 10

› Enjoyment: 10
This book tore my heart out, stomped on it a bit, and shoved it back into my chest.

Average 9.3

Average Story Graph Rating 3.99

Average Goodreads Rating 3.87

My Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• Trust is a mysterious, challenging, emotional, character-driven book about financial bonds, the bonds we build, the bonds we break, and the bond of trust. It gives a voice to women in the financial history of America. You must read the entire book to fully understand what it’s about. I’ve seen other reviewers say this book reminded them of Middlemarch.

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