Trust

Benjamin Rask inherited a family fortune and gambled on himself. He sold off his family’s tobacco interests and accrued vast wealth through stock market speculation. His vast wealth didn’t buy everything, as he lived a solitary existence. Helen Breevort’s circumstances are the exact opposite, as her family’s fortunes have hit the skids. Helen longs for independence from her stifling family and believes Benjamin is her answer. Andrew Bevel is a titan of Wall Street finance whose mastery of arbitrage has earned respect and enmity. Ida Partenza is the daughter of a socialist looking to gain any employment to keep creditors at bay. All four share a common destiny, even in the sprawling metropolis.

Trust by Hernan Diaz is not merely a book about love and money, but more about how one can choose money over love and reap the whirlwind. Diaz’s characters are complex, amusing, and heartrending, from a financial alchemist who only finds rationality in financial markets to a budding ghostwriter who doesn’t know if she should give her trust fully to her subject. It offers a wonderful deep dive into human nature and how often some try to rewrite history to reconcile past sins.