Hernan Diaz’s Recommended Reading List

Hernan Diaz, the author of Trust – Service95 Book Club’s Monthly Read For March – shares a reading list of the books that inspired his novel.

“Trust is a novel made up of four different books, written by four different authors in very different registers and genres. It was a fun challenge to make each one of these voices believable, but that meant immersing myself in entirely different worlds and tones. Throughout the composition of the novel, I read voraciously, attempting to achieve four equally believable writing styles. I won’t list any of the historical documents (some of them were incredibly dry), but here are some of the pieces of literature that were very present in my mind during the years it took me to write this novel.” – Hernan Diaz

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

“I love this book with all my heart. A sharp, eviscerating examination of New York’s upper crust in the 1870s. The prose is gorgeous.”

The White Album by Joan Didion

“All of Didion’s nonfiction is pure genius, but this is my favourite collection of hers. I wish I knew how she managed to write with such subdued elegance and simultaneous force. A crucial book to understand the value of balancing emotion with discipline in art.”

The Diaries of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Woolf

“Whether you decide to tackle all five volumes or the single abridged one (edited by Leonard Woolf), this is not an easy read. It’s beautiful, of course, but seldom have I found someone as painfully frank about themselves on the page. I recommend alternating with Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.”

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

“Exquisitely claustrophobic, this novel is a prequel of sorts to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and offers a critical take on the deplorable trope of the ‘madwoman in the attic’, so pervasive in the Western canon.”

A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell

“A fascinating study of New York’s power society, this novel published in 1942 was way ahead of its time – and remains uncannily current.”