Ply: from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust

by Hernan Diaz

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in our collective imagination.

Centuries from now, an orphan adrift in an American city grows up to become a pincher. Stealing electricity from the grid to power the vibrant downtown music scene she adores is a risky occupation, and the city she moves through can be dangerous. She is right to be wary. But soon, she is drawn into a paranoid maze where her closest friends and even her own identity are put into question – all while following a thread leading to a scientific experiment that could change the fabric of reality itself.

Set in a future filled with both uncertainty and promise, Ply is a powerfully humane novel that interrogates the role of technology in a deeply changed society. A gripping quest for truth at the dawn of a new historical epoch, it offers us a deep dive into the burden of capitalism, while poignantly charting the boundaries of selfhood, and the distance that stands between us and those we love.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction

Audible Audio

Expected publication September 29, 2026

About the author

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author of Trust. His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, won the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, was translated into more than twenty languages, and was one of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 books of the year and Literary Hub’s twenty best novels of the decade. Trust, one of The New York Times’s 100 best Books of the Century, was translated into more than thirty languages, received the Kirkus Prize, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and Time magazine, and it was one of The New Yorker’s 12 Essential Reads of the Year and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Diaz’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He has received the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a fellowship from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Reviews

[sami is losing her mind]

i'm seated. the bookstore employees are scared and asking me to leave because 'it's not september 2026 yet' but i'm simply too seated

[Olive Fellows (abookolive)]

Hate this cover, but very excited for the book nonetheless.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

as far as we know, we are the only ones in this corner of the universe who have been bestowed with consciousness and language. perhaps the only ones, period. and it took evolution almost four billion years, well over a third of the age of the universe, to get us here. just imagine: you are one of the few beings to be found in light-years upon light-years who has the ability to perceive the cosmos, think about its beauty and complexity, and communicate this sense of awe to others. and what do some people do with the astounding gifts of sentience, thought, and expression? they choose to find ways of increasing profit and accumulating wealth. hard to imagine anything narrower and bleaker, anything emptier of wonder, anything more incurious and unloving.

set centuries hence, hernan diaz's new novel, ply (the follow-up to his magnificent, pulitzer-winning trust), is the riveting tale of a dark future beset by energy woes and wealth disparity. amid a frenetic urban scene, diaz's nameless protagonist ("the pincher") steals electricity to grind out a living for herself. when conflicting loyalties and competing interests raise the stakes of success and even survival, the pincher's whole world is torn asunder. thrumming with dystopian eventualities, ply's outstanding storytelling and seductive world-building are deeply mesmeric. family, trust, ethics, legacy, honor, diaz's latest explores many themes, but, most of all, tells one hell of a galvanic tale.

[Mohamed Ikhlef]

First few pages and I am sure this will be among the best novels I ever read!

[Ryan Davison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Electricity is currency in Ply, and our central protagonist is an unnamed ‘pincher’ who charges fuel cells (known as bricks) by tapping illegal energy sources. She’s an innovative thief and develops a brick with much enhanced capacity, so her services are in high demand. Music is a major theme throughout, and the pincher sells bands the power they need to perform. In this energy starved dystopia, an electricity guzzling display equals more extravagance. Along with brew master partner, Reni,, the pincher has carved out a creative energy supplying/drink serving company called, the intentionally cheesy, Brix and Bricks. In a world where few reach the age of thirty, you get by however you can.

The book is set five hundred years in the future and described in dazzling detail with incredible steampunk imagery under a retro gloss of analog technology. Characters carry tablet-like devices called stells, accessing their personalized wiki-like file stores, and like time immemorial, gather around water stations to trade goods and share news. A defining event, known as 'The Suppression', occurred years previous, a dark day when citizen groups intended to storm the region's two major companies in control of water and energy. Corporate mutiny did not go as planned and the dissenters disappeared. Ply is the story of their children and grandchildren.

For every chapter in real time, we are given one of our unnamed narrator’s emotionally charged backstory. Her youth is filled with gadget lessons from her tinkerer mother who fixed and resold any item imaginable, and after an apprenticeship with a world class technical mind, the pincher grew from naturally gifted, to truly skilled. But developing an ingeniously improved power storing device leads our pincher to Pola, a physicist from The Great Lakes with unimaginable ambition, thrusting the plot in its intended direction.

Like Diaz’s previous novel, Trust, this prose is richly composed and surprising plotlines are cleverly embedded. When a character says their aim is to ‘unknit and reweave spacetime’, readers should expect grandiose developments. The world which serves as a backdrop to Ply is undeniably brilliant, and atmosphere overcomes brief sections that may feel like a university physics lecture. This novel's resounding finale will astound some, and provoke discussion in all. It's a pleasing experience that comes recommended.

While Ply’s themes are planted firmly in science, the environment is reminiscent of the glorious environment created by China Miéville's Perdido Street Station.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Riverhead Books for a review copy.

[Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hernan Diaz’s vision of the future is far more believable and philosophical than I expected.

I’m still processing my ARC of Ply. Diaz presents a future version of a familiar metropolis with subtle world-building. He never explicitly names the city, so it takes a moment to realize where you are, but once it clicks the setting becomes immersive. The narrator treats her surroundings as normal, even though life there is harsh compared to wealthier regions like the Great Lakes.

Energy almost functions as currency. The city’s power grid is controlled by a massive company called Tensor, and stealing electricity is illegal. The narrator survives as a “pincher,” siphoning power and compressing it into portable bricks. She’s also a skilled tinkerer, constantly modifying and repurposing technology to get by. Tensor and a private police force dominate the city, creating a world where corporations have essentially replaced government.

Part one establishes the narrator as a resilient figure navigating this environment on her own terms. She often finds support from people around her, yet she also has a tendency to complicate or sever those relationships. That tension makes her a compelling character whose flaws feel like an authentic product of the world she lives in.

Part two takes an unexpected turn into high-concept science and physics, briefly feeling like something out of a Blake Crouch novel, but with Diaz’s more philosophical approach to the ideas. I got a little lost in the technical descriptions, but grounding the science adds an intriguing layer to the story. Her relationships with Sola and Ines were a highlight.

One of the most impressive stylistic choices comes near the end, when Diaz shifts the narrative voice. The change is initially shocking and disorienting, but it ultimately pulls you deeper into the narrator’s mind and serves the story perfectly.

I wish we saw even more of the underground music scene, which perfectly captures the energy of 70s New York punk. Even so, the ending is wild and philosophical, and the novel feels both speculative and believable.

I received a physical ARC of Ply from a colleague who attended Winter Institute 2026.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a departure from Hernan Diaz's previous novel, Trust, but only further cements his talent. Set in a dystopian future, the novel follows a nameless "pincher" who survives by stealing and selling electricity from the grid.

I was completely hooked by the first part of the novel. Diaz does an amazing job of slowly offering intriguing details and backstory about the narrator, her childhood, and of the secondary characters. He has created a very full world that, while set in a dystopian future, somehow felt familiar and real. I struggled getting through the second part of the novel, but this felt like more of a reflection of my intelligence and understanding of science than it did of Diaz's writing. This is not an easy read, but it is worthwhile. I will continue to pick up anything Diaz writes in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this ARC.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC Exclusive Winter Institute Edition
Hernan Diaz does it again. What did I just read??!! To call this dystopian, post-apocalyptic sci-fi would be an incomplete description. Yes, it's that and much more because of the author. This novel has a compelling plot with intimate, well-developed characters, supreme storytelling, prose that is easy to read without ever being simple, and philosophical ideas that will give me hours of fodder for contemplation. The world described is also hauntingly plausible.

Diaz is an incredibly talented writer and thinker, like no one else I’ve read. I usually don’t like novels that make for good movies, but I hope Diaz gets a movie deal for Ply and makes a shitload of money. He’s already won a well-deserved Pulitzer (for Trust). I’d like to see this talented writer be well paid also...so he can keep writing whatever his heart and mind create.