Ply: A Novel

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER
" *Ply* is majestic. A cracked mirror world, a lot like ours; peopled by survivors, a lot like us; sentences so fine they break the skin; a plot that swerves through loss, love, trust, betrayal, art, science, society and control." —David Mitchell
“A testament to the surpassing importance of the human voice, artistic fecundity, improvisation, and ingenuity.” — *Boston Globe*
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 major 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.