Hernan Diaz’s Ply arrives September 29. Its setting is an anarcho-capitalist future after democracy: an orphan who steals electricity moves through underground concerts, financial systems and a particle accelerator whose work bends time and space. Diaz researched at CERN and resists calling the book a dystopia; he describes its political gesture as “punkish.” Financial Times interview, AP preview
That combination—capital, constructed reality and formal play—makes it a natural queue item after Trust. The first substantial dissent is useful: The Times finds the opening comparatively young-adult in texture and thinks the philosophy arrives late. First review I would sample rather than preorder on reputation alone; 464 pages is enough room for the architecture to either deepen or become visible scaffolding.