Trust: A Novel

• Pulitzer Prize for Literature (2023), Kirkus Prize (2022), Booker Prize longlist (2022).

• One of the ten best books of 2022 according to The New York Times and one of Barack Obama's favorite books.

• A multifaceted story about power, love, and the essence of truth. Premium intellectual prose.

• HBO is preparing an adaptation starring Kate Winslet.

• An engaging novel about America in the 1920s, the elite of New York during the Great Depression.

 

Even the roar and clamor of the roaring twenties could not drown out their names. He is a legendary mogul from Wall Street, she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together they rose to the pinnacle of a world full of the illusion of limitless wealth. But what price did they pay for such immense fortune? We will learn about this from several sources. From a book about the life of a millionaire. From his own memoirs. From a typist who records them and notices that the story and reality begin to diverge. And - from the diaries of his wife. Whose voice is more honest, and who is the most unreliable narrator? How do conceptions of reality coexist with reality itself? "Trust" is both a gripping story and a brilliant literary puzzle.

 

Quotes:

 

«Every last one of our actions is governed by the laws of economics. Barely waking up in the morning, we trade rest for benefit. As we go to sleep in the evening, we give up potentially beneficial hours to restore our strength. And throughout the day, we repeatedly engage in business. Every time we seek a way to minimize our costs and maximize benefits, we make a deal, even if it’s just with ourselves. This domestic economy is so ingrained in our daily lives that we hardly notice it. But the truth is that our entire existence revolves around profit».

 

«Most of us prefer to regard our victories as personal achievements, and our defeats as unfortunate happenstances. We like to see ourselves as winners, but not losers - it’s better to be victims of fate».

 

«Closeness can become a heavy burden for those who experience it for the first time after a long life in proud solitude and suddenly realize that until now their world was incomplete. Gaining bliss is inseparable from the fear of losing it. These two doubt their right to place the responsibility for their happiness on someone else; they worry that their beloved's worship may become burdensome; they fear that longing may quietly distort their features. This way, under the influence of all these cares and fears, they close themselves off, and the newfound joy of communication turns into a deeper form of solitude, when they have already decided they left it in the past».

 

«He was grateful to America but viewed the American idea of freedom with suspicion, seeing it as nothing more than a synonym for conformity or, worse, a simple choice between different brands of the same product».