Certain to satisfy lovers of literary puzzles and books that break the mould, Hernan Diaz’s Trust is a clever, elegantly-written novel that challenges perceptions of truth while tackling the way wealth and power corrupt said perceptions.

As such, Trust provokes plenty of food for thought and makes a meaty subject for book clubs. 

Read on for questions to spark your own discussions about Trust and, if you want more ideas for your bookish get-togethers, discover our recommended book club novels, and explore more reading group questions.

1. How did you relate to Trust’s stories within a story structure? How did the stories interlock and unfold to create the novel? How successful was this structure? Did it take you long to figure out how they interlocked?

2. Compare and contrast the style and tone of the different stories within the novel. Did you have a preference for one or other of them? 

3. Benjamin “became fascinated by the contortions of money — how it could be made to bend back on itself to force-feed its own body. The isolated, self-sufficient nature of speculation spoke to his character and was a source of wonder and an end in itself, regardless of what his earnings represented or afforded him.” What do the different stories reveal about the acquisition of wealth? What does the impulse to acquire wealth for the sake of it reveal about human nature? 

4. “All of us aspire to greater wealth. The reason for this is simple and can be found in science. Because nothing in nature is stable, one cannot merely keep what one has”. 

So writes Andrew Bevel in his My Life section of Trust. Do you agree? 

5. Compare this statement with Ida’s assertion: “Because of my upbringing, I had come to consider money as something filthy”. And compare with Mildred's admission: “it’d be dishonest to claim it was only an intellectual exercise for me. I discovered a deep well of ambition within. From it I extracted a dark fuel.” Did the characters’ respective embracing of capitalism and, in Ida’s father’s case, socialism, chime with the world we live in today?

6. Did you trust Andrew’s version of events any more than Vanner’s novelisation? Which account presents him in the best light? How did your impression of Andrew and Mildred change after reading her journal? Were you surprised by her journal?

7. Discuss the significance of the Jean Rhys quote Mildred mentions in her journal: “The orchestra played Puccini and the sort of music that you always know what’s going to come next, that you can listen to ahead, as it were”.

8. What does the novel reveal about power? What does it suggest about the nature of truth? What does it reveal about the nature of fiction?

9. How did you feel after reading Trust? Did it put you in mind of any other novels or writers?