Most of it is indecipherable code, but Ida is eventually able to translate and what she finds is the source material that introduces us to the actual person we have now met from three other perspectives. In the final section, we find ourselves with Mildred’s own secret diary. It is Ida who insists, ultimately, on sleuthing out the real Mildred Bevel. The ghost writer Ida and the philanthropist Mildred have a great deal in common it turns out although almost mirror images of each other. In this section we gain perspective not only on Mildred but on Ida herself. Then we meet Ida Prevenza who has ghost written Andrew Bevel’s memoir and, in the process, has begun the search for the real Mildred Bevel. In Andrew Bevel’s telling, he patronized her love of the arts to keep her days filled while his financial genius saved the nation’s capital markets from themselves. In his ghost-written memoir, Mildred is his charming, sweet, childlike wife who staved off boredom by hosting quaint little artist gatherings. Next, we are introduced to the Mildred her financial giant husband wants us to see. The fictional author depicts a crisis of conscious for fictional Mildred as the Great Depression grips New York City while her husband’s wealth continues to grow.

First, through a fiction-within-a-fiction novel clearly based on Mildred, the novelist portrays a complex, mysterious, dynamic woman whose relationship to her husband’s extreme wealth is complicated. In this uniquely structured fiction, Diaz introduces us to Mildred in the early days of 20 th century New York.

Who gets to tell your story? Ultimately, does it matter? In his new novel, ' Trust,' Hernan Diaz introduces us to one character, Mildred Bevel, in four disparate accounts, illustrating the vast divide between perspectives.

Trust hernan diaz reviews