Trust by Hernan Diaz

This book was long listed for the 2022 Booker Prize, and it is every bit worthy of that nomination. The tricky thing about writing a review of it is that it is a cleverly written book, and you shouldn't have too much away before you start reading it, but a few hints won't hurt. The book is not so much a novel as it is an an intricately constructed quartet of stories — what Wall Street traders would call a 4-for-1 stock split. The next clue is that the title is important. Trust is a very slippery slope, and that is cleverly revealed as the novel unfolds. Lastly, in the end it is all about money, particularly, the flimflam force of money in the stock market, and its potential to bend and align reality to its own purposes. When all is said and done, while the novel opens in the beginning of the 20th century, there is a lot here for those of us living in the 21st century to learn from.