SIMON: Bevel is not flattered to see his life become the stuff of fiction in a novel written by a man named Harold Vanner any more than William Randolph Hearst liked 'Citizen Kane'. The idea was to present a novel within the novel, a historical document, a memoir and a personal journal, and recruit the reader as a textual detective of sorts, have them ask themselves how reality itself may be the effect of a textual construction, maybe the effect of different narratives. SIMON: What do the four narratives help us see that, let's say, the omniscient voice that includes four viewpoints wouldn't?ĭIAZ: Well, the novel is concerned to a large extent with the distinction between history and fiction. Thank you so much for being with us.ĭIAZ: Thank you for having me - an enormous pleasure. And if money is the god among commodities, this - with my upturned palm, I drew an arc that encompassed the office and suggested the building beyond it - is its high temple. It's the universal commodity by which we measure all other commodities. HERNAN DIAZ: (Reading) Why work at a place that makes one thing when I could work at a company that makes all things? Because that's what money is - all things. Here is Hernan Diaz reading from the secretary's memoir, recounting when she applies for her job. But what really is money? 'Trust' is a book spun from four narratives - a novel wrought from the tale of life of Andrew Bevel, a financial baron during the 1929 stock market crash, his attempt to write his own story, his secretary's memoir, and finally the journal left by his deceased wife, Mildred. Why are we so sure it can buy a cup of coffee and a muffin? Because it has a story, a narrative, you might say, that money can buy what we need and maybe what we want and eventually what we may dream about. SIMON: 'Trust' may make you look differently at, say, a $5 bill.

Diaz when his book was released last year. Two novels shared the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this week - Barbara Kingsolver for 'Demon Copperhead' and Hernan Diaz for 'Trust.' We spoke with Mr.

In the distance hernan diaz