Hernan Diaz

Hernan Diaz will take the Studebaker Theater stage to discuss his new novel, Ply, in conversation with Greta Johnsen. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination. Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival, and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality. After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A singular achievement from a major contemporary writer, Ply questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama, and scientific thriller, Ply poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love. All tickets come with a signed copy of Ply – available for pick-up on the day of the event. — Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust, one of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the Century. His previous novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has received the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kirkus Prize, a Whiting Award, and a fellowship from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. His work has been translated into 37 languages. Greta Johnsen is an interviewer, podcast host, event moderator, and book person. She co-hosts HBO’s Official Game of Thrones Podcast, writes the GRETAGRAM newsletter on Substack, and is host and creator of the podcast Happy To Be Here. She also works as a program producer for Chicago Humanities. She can also be heard on podcasts like Pop Culture Happy Hour and City Cast Chicago. In her free time, she likes to read as many books as possible, cook food that is only occasionally photogenic, knit squishy apparel, and hang out with her Bull Terrier, Buffy.