Hernan Diaz at a Glance

Full Name: Hernan Diaz

Pronunciation: air-NAHN DEE-az

Born: 1973

Nationality: Argentina, United States

Education:

• University of Buenos Aires (undergraduate degree)
• King’s College (MA)
• New York University (PhD)

Genres:

• Contemporary literature

Biography & Background

Hernan Diaz Biography

Hernan Diaz is an Argentine American writer and scholar best known for his two novels In the Distance (2017) and Trust (2022). Born in Buenos Aires in 1973, he and his family moved two years later to Sweden after a military coup in Argentina. Diaz returned to Argentina at age 10, then moved to the US in 1999 to pursue a PhD at New York University.

Diaz’s two novels take place in very different geographical and historical settings, with In the Distance set in 19th-century California and Trust in the world of New York finance at the time of the Great Depression, but both novels explore temptations and dangers of the American dream. In the Distance, Diaz’s debut, was published by the small but highly respected independent publisher Coffee House Press. The novel was a breakout success both critically and commercially, and Diaz won a prestigious Whiting Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His second novel, Trust, was published by Riverhead in 2022.