A novel about money and power, trust, intimacy, and the idea we have of ourselves.
Despite the noise and turmoil of the 1920s, everyone in New York knows Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street magnate. She is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they reached the pinnacle of a world where wealth seems endless, just as the decade of excess and speculation is coming to an end. But what did they have to sacrifice to acquire this immense fortune? This is the central theme of a successful 1937 novel that seems to have been read by all of New York. However, there are other versions of this story of privilege and deception.
Hernan Diaz masterfully manages to unite the different narratives, making them converse with each other and culminate through the perspective of a woman determined to distinguish reality from fantasy. The result is a novel that spans over a century, with each new discovery making it increasingly captivating.
The Legacy is both a gripping story and a skillful literary puzzle, engaging the reader in the search for truth, while also touching on the disappointments that often nestle in the heart of personal relationships, the power of capital to distort everything, and the ease with which power can manipulate situations.