What a fascinating read! The author did a brilliant job of devising a puzzle and allowing the reader to decipher it.
It's four different versions of lives lived. It centers around the life of Bernard Rask, an entrepreneur and financier, and his wife, Helen. Yet, that rendering of the plot is too simplistic. There's other versions of this puzzle and, ultimately, the reader will be able to gather the truth about the characters' lives.
The writing is unique as is the story. When you've reached the end, it all falls into place and leaves you thinking and thinking. What an accomplishment!

This is a brilliant novel. I found myself unable to put it down. The storytelling is masterful as more and more details seemingly unfold on every page. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. You will not be disappointed.

Pulitzer finalist Diaz’s brilliantly layered epic unfolds through a quartet of accounts, each of which adds new meaning to the ones that have gone before—much in the vein of Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost, but set in the world of early 20th-century corporate finance. The authors of the four tales are given up front, but the less said about how they relate to one another, the better. Readers will derive the greatest pleasure if they uncover the revelations themselves.

First is a short novel called Bonds by Harold Vanner, a pointed morality tale about New York stock market whiz Benjamin Rask, who accumulates great wealth while remaining isolated from its impact on others. Rask’s marriage to wife Helen, an intellectual from an old Albany family, is an agreeable if emotionally distant union, and they both like it that way. In a style reminiscent of Edith Wharton, Vanner draws readers into Rask’s money-making ventures and the scandal that befell the couple after the 1929 crash. Next comes the incomplete autobiography of financier Andrew Bevel, who puts pen to paper—with eye-opening pomposity—to counter rumors about his investments and to honor his late wife, Mildred. Paired with Vanner’s novel, Bevel appears to cover similar ground, which may cause some confusion—but keep reading.

Up third, the memoir of Ida Partenza, an Italian anarchist’s daughter, is hugely satisfying as it brings the first two accounts into focus while leaving some mysteries for the last section to reveal (which it definitely does). Each part feels smoothly calibrated to its author’s personality and historical setting as the story continues to provoke questions about which person’s truth can be relied upon. Not only a powerful commentary on the effects of unfettered capitalism, Trust also exposes the complex art of mythmaking engineered by the rich and powerful, and those erased in the process.

Why read one novel when you can read four?! Hernan Diaz intertwines four different stories into one in a masterful and beautiful way. Be careful to trust what you read and the story being told to you.

Although Hernan Diaz’s latest novel is titled Trust, the nature of trust in this novel isn’t so simple. Told through 4 documents, Trust is really 4 books in one, each examining a different perspective of the richest man in 1920s America.

With each document, the reader comes to a greater understanding about the nature of wealth and the role it played in one man’s life. I spoke with Hernan Diaz about each document, his literary style, and more. Here's our conversation.

The writing is good but unfortunately the story didn’t grab me. Although I think many people will be interested in reading this especially as it is being made into a movie or series.

Beautiful writing propels this book out of the realm of entertainment and into the ranks of highest quality literary fiction, Starting with the title, this is a reading experience that requires your full commitment
Trust is the title, and the primary definition of the term is having a belief in the reliability of something. With this stark one word title the reader is alerted there will be an issue with the credibility of the narrative. There is also a secondary definition of trust which is a legal and financial term relating to holding property for the good of beneficiaries.. This too becomes an essential element of the story as different narratives one after the other recount the story of the financial boom and bust cycles of America. It is a fascinating lesson in forces driving the U. S. economy up to and including The Great Depression.. In each separate story the role and influence of one man is spelled out and we are led to believe his self-interest and the interests of the country are inextricably linked. Whether the man is Benjamin Rusk or Andrew Bevel or any other of the great robber barons of this era, the reader is shown multiple versions of the same story, and with each retelling the perspective shifts and the reader is less sure whom to trust.
If you enjoyed the HBO series The Gilded Age with its rigid social code and its totally bare knuckled financial brawling, this book will appeal to you. If you like a story that keeps you off balance, I strongly recommend it. There were a few tedious patches but I promise, Hernan Diaz is an author in whom you can put your trust.

This is a fascinating book with an intriguing structure. The plot covers the life of a couple in the early 1900s New York prior to the stock market crash. The husband is a financial wizard that anticipates the market's every move and becomes wildly successful. His wife is a patron of the arts. The book is broken into 4 parts. The first is a novel and you believe that these are the characters correctly portrayed. The second is an autobiography written by the husband that reads like a stream of consciousness and is a mess. The third is the story as told by a ghost writer about the couple and you are now completely confused as to who the book is writing about. The last section is the diary of the financier's wife who maybe clears everything up about what is real and what is fictitious. I have never read anything like this book. It is so well crafted. If you are looking for the answers, you are out of luck. This book highlights the question, is there a reliable narrator? Which makes me wonder, if I am. I strongly recommend this complex and compelling work of art.

This was an interesting story and presents two narratives of a wealthy individual. It was slow-moving but interesting. I believe the first narrative, which is the narrative that is supposed to be a fictional account, was too long and in-depth. Moving to the events that did occur could have been more detailed

My thoughts were posted on The Storygraph and on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4727600139

Multiple perspectives of the life of a Wall Street tycoon and his wife set in 1920s New York. Two stories within a story leave the reader wondering what the real story is.

The first thing that strikes you about Trust, Hernan Diaz’ intriguing examination of the power of wealth to shape and distort memories, is its inventive structure. The story unfurls through four nested books-within-the-book, starting with a popular novel from the 1930s about a fictionalized financier and his talented but reclusive wife who gained much of their riches by exploiting the tumultuous economic conditions in the years leading up to the stock market crash of October 1929. This is followed by a fragmented, self-serving memoir by Andrew Bevel, the real-life financier on whom the first story was based, that tries to “correct” the record and undo the damage to his professional reputation. This, in turn, evokes the written remembrances of Ida Partenza, the woman who was hired by Bevel to serve as his personal secretary and ghost writer. Finally, through the discovery decades later of the journal of Mildred Bevel, the financier’s wife, the last chapter of the tale is ultimately revealed.

I found this book to be entertaining and quite interesting, both for its style as well as its substance. Of course, whether you like the sort of meta-fictional playfulness exhibited by the novel’s structure might depend on how traditional you like the stories you read to be. While there are certainly plenty examples of post-modern literary excesses, some of my favorite recent reading experiences have experimented with composition to great effect, including Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Whether the Diaz’ work rises to the same level of renown as those novels remains to be seen, but it is clear that Trust offers an intricate and well-conceived story in which all of the puzzle pieces fit quite nicely, even as the main plot line bounces back and forth through the years.

It might be easy to understate the quality of story itself for all the stylistic sleight-of-hand the author employs, but this would be a mistake. Diaz demonstrates a nice knack for combining historical fiction of the Jazz Age and Great Depression eras with the mystery of just how the Bevels accumulated their wealth in the first place. Although the resolution of the mystery is not particularly surprising—it is signaled well in advance of the final nested section—the entire story is engaging and compelling, particularly when Ida’s memories take center stage. I especially enjoyed the realistic depictions of how capital markets functioned in the 1920s and 30s and how easy it was to manipulate them. Indeed, one of the unifying themes in the novel is the many ways in which powerful men and women seek to bend the truth for either their personal gain or to shape the narrative of their legacies. A striking irony of the book’s title is that none of the narrators is totally reliable, and the reader is left wondering just who he or she can actually trust. This is a thought-provoking book and one that I can highly recommend.

A few years ago, Hernan Diaz brought forth, 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, a page-turning allegorical journey set in the American Midwest. This semi-autobiographical debut had me scouring for westerns while anxiously awaiting the release announcement for his next novel, Trust. Far from a modern western, Diaz’s pen has drawn up a new uncharted gem-filled course in fictional storytelling.

𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 is structured in four parts: novel, manuscript, memoir and diary. Individual parts sound like easy bake oven recipe but I am in awe on how aspects are interlinked to create a memorable layered dish.

Admittedly, the starting novel 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 was a tedious chore. I kept replaying the adventure-charged character development from the debut and asking myself—why in the world did Diaz give us a third-person narrative of an miserable elitist to follow as they take advantage of financial markets. But pages into the personal manuscript followed into the memoir, it clicks! Similar to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 by John Darnielle, Diaz blurs the narrative perception of reality in all the best ways!

For a book set in the Edith Wharton’s gilded age, I found Mildred to be the missing dynamic female voice who is not driven solely by the purpose of marriage. Elements of capital markets are discussed in approachable terms without it seemingly like a stock trading floor jargon. There are also nuggets of literature references for the book lover. The prose is strange but purposeful. Diaz’s construct of wealth has me questioning my own preference for history or fiction.

A huge thank you to Riverhead Books for my first printed arc copy of my most anticipated release!

Trust unfolds in several parts and multiple layers that make for an intriguing reading experience. Hernan Diaz tells a story of immense wealth, privilege, and depicts some very unique characteristics of a finance empire that make it seem, in many ways, like a living organism. Diaz also incorporates the theme of legacy, truth, and storytelling in a clever and sophisticated approach through the use of multiple points of view to tell a similar story from various view points.
The stories are intriguing and the themes are fascinating. Trust generates a number of questions that are not answered until the final installment of the book. For me, it was not immediately clear how each of the four sections was related until the end of the book.
Trust is a monumental novel that fails to fit, or perhaps incorporates the most interesting elements of fiction, memoir, and non-fiction all incorporated in a single volume.
I will be publishing a more in depth analysis and review of the book for BookTrib.com - anticipated publication date 06 May 2022

A story told in four parts. The first: the fictionalized novel, Bonds, which tells of Helen and Benjamin Rask - a quiet couple who spends time on philanthropy while also facilitating the stock market crash of 1929. The second: a quick peak into the very sparse and informal journals of Andrew Bevel, who Bonds was clearly based upon. The third: Bevel hires Ida Partenza to write his autobiography to combat the novel as he says it portrays himself and his wife (who suffered a complete mental breakdown in Bonds) in a bad light. The final: the journal of Andrew Bevel’s wife, Mildred which chronicles the truth that was woven between all four stories.

Intriguing and well written - merging all of the stories together without truly merging them must have been difficult. But I must say I did not fall into this book as much as I would have liked and I question if it is because it was separated in the manner described? Overall, interesting and I definitely kept reading to seek the truth. But Diaz makes it clear that one always must question the truth and the power of the written word.

I loved the concept of this novel - a memoir within a novel within a novel - but thought the first two inter-fictional (not a real word) sections were so slow and boring. The third and final section was great but the first 50% was a slog for me.

When I first saw this cover I was immediately drawn to this book. It was the perfect mixture of haunting and intriguing and I needed to know what this book was about. I admit that the synopsis left me a bit confused but after reading some reviews I decided to pick it up and I'm so glad I did.

This book is a story within a story within a story within a story. I adore these metafiction types of narratives and with this one, it wasn't different. The author constructs things in carefully measured ways, only to surprise you at a later point. I think it's best to know as little as possible about this book so as not to spoil your experience of it, but basically, it opens with an account of the legendary financier Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen, for me, the early pages of the book were a little bit hard to get acclimated to, and I found myself thinking once "should I stop reading?" but the thing is, I could not. Not only I was already invested in the characters which is a feat in itself, but I was also eager to know what would come next.

This book is the type that obliges you to slow down to follow its pace, and I was more than glad to do it. Over the course of the next three sections, we have an unfinished manuscript, a novel within a novel, and a diary, that all together combined paint a picture for us drawing from the very first account in the book. There are layers upon layers and the reader is guided through them and the discoveries that come along and the play with what "trust"; "veracity" and "truth" mean. But there are also other motifs that present themselves throughout the novel, what does money really mean? A fiction created by our society in which we add meaning to dirty stacks of bills just to value our other commodities? What does that mean for finance capital, that it is a fiction of a fiction? Are we all complicit in the stories we create if the price is right? I found all of this to be done superbly in the story, yes there were a bit much of explanations about the stock value, Wall Street, and Math, but I found it to be adding to the story rather than making it dull (even though my poor brain has very little understanding of all of it) and it suits the overall vibe of the story, set in the 1920s mostly and the rising and crash of the New York stock market is a very important theme for the novel.

I think what mesmerized me the most was the writing, it was so beautifully readable and engaging that I just wanted to keep reading for the sake of the writing (if that makes sense) and it questioned the reader at all times in regards to what we think are facts, making us reflect that we can't trust a person (or a book) by its cover. This book also reminded me a lot of Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise, both because of the format, the writing style, the character-driven story, and the depth in construction of the characters, and also it reminded me a bit of Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, because of the construction of characters that seem real even though the book is fictional, the writing was so strong and carefully done I kept thinking what I was reading wasn't fictional and that's the same I felt with TJR, and also because most of Evelyn's story is set in the golden age of Hollywood and since Trust is set mostly in the 1920's there's this old feel to the narrative that reminded me of TJR book. And of course, the one book that I was also reminded of while I read was The Great Gatsby.

Overall, this was a phenomenal book. I am not sure it will be a book for everyone, but I am sure there is a type of reader out there exactly fit for this story. I hope they find it. I think part of why I liked this one so much is that it was for the most part very outside of my comfort zone, and what I've been reading lately and that was just what I needed to read. This is the type of novel that will stay in my mind for a long time, there is still so much to process from this thought-provoking novel, and I won't forget this experience so soon. The author's previous book was a finalist for the Pulitzer, I haven't read it, but in what concerns 'Trust' I think there is a very strong chance this one might win the prize.

What worked for me:
*I enjoyed the 3-part structure of book within a book within a story
*The discussion of the current events of the time (1920s)
*The explanation of the cyclical periods of boom or bust in our economy

What didn’t:
*The seemingly endless discussions of finance and stock market and mathematical strategies
*Characters that would benefit from more depth of personality

Thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for the ARC to read and review.

4 stars

If you are also a chronic speed reader, I strongly suggest challenging yourself to slow down on this one. You'll be glad you did. Even as I write this review immediately after finishing the read, I know that my feelings about this book are already changing. There's a lot to process - in the best way.

What Diaz creates here is totally unique; the structure is impeccable. Readers go on a quest through varying perspectives on the same characters. It's difficult to be certain of what's true and what's misleading, and that factor highlights the importance of perception vs. reality - and how perception becomes reality - not only in the novel but in lived experience. What's most powerful (so far for me) is the unavoidable nature of the reader creating yet another narrative as they construct the pieces into some kind of whole. It's also fascinating to notice where one's biases lie. Who is most likely to be believed? Why?

Some readers may find the structure and the gaps more frustrating than rewarding, but those who stay for the whole ride will find this intriguing. I already feel like continuing to process this will be nearly as enjoyable as the read itself.

Trust, by Hernan Diaz, is a thought provoking, multilayered historical novel that is truly unique and will stay in the minds of readers long past 2022. This will be an excellent book club pick and will evoke lively discussion.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.