Ply

A Novel

By: Hernan Diaz

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trust turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival, and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, Ply questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama, and scientific thriller, Ply poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.

Critic reviews

Praise for Trust

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

“Intricate, cunning and consistently surprising . . . Diaz has the whole literary past at his fingertips.”—The New York Times (10 Best Books of the Year)

“An elegant, irresistible puzzle.”—The Washington Post (10 Best Books of the Year)

“With only his second novel, Diaz has become an ambitious and significant voice.” —The Guardian (Best Books of the Year)

“Wondrous . . . Diaz is brilliant at dissecting literary conventions and transforming them into something new.” —New York Review of Books