Παρακαταθήκη
Hernan Diaz, 2022
★ 3.79 from 196.8k ratings on Goodreads
A biography of a man who hated the family fortune and became, by accident, one of the most powerful financiers who ever lived. A cool, witty voice carries you through shifting accounts, with curiosity and awe gathering as memory and identity keep changing shape.
Feels like curiosity, awe and wonder. About power, identity and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy novels built from documents and competing memories, and you don't mind a narrator who keeps you at a cool distance. Some readers find its melancholy and introspection slow.
Why read it
It gives you four distinct forms circling one man's fortune and memory, and a sharp look at how power gets written down.
A page from the book
A man who hates luxury and finds it vulgar, but not money itself.
Η πολυτέλεια ήταν ένα χυδαίο βάρος. Η πρόσβαση σε νέες εμπειρίες δεν ήταν κάτι που το μοναχικό πνεύμα του λαχταρούσε. Η πολιτική και το κυνήγι της εξου σίας δεν ασκούσαν καμία γοητεία στο αντικοινωνικό μυαλό του. Τα παιχνίδια στρατηγικής, όπως το σκάκι ή το μπριτζ, ποτέ δεν τον ενδιέφεραν. Αν τον ρωτούσαν, ο Μπέντζαμιν θα δυσκολευόταν ενδεχομένως να εξηγήσει τι ακριβώς τον έλκυε στον κόσμο της οικονομίας. Ήταν, σίγουρα, η πολυπλοκότη τά του, αλλά και το γεγονός ότι έβλεπε το κεφάλαιο ως έναν ασηπτικό ζωντανό οργανισμό. Κινούνταν, καταβρόχθιζε, ανα πτυσσόταν, αναπαραγόταν, έφθινε και μπορούσε να χαθεί. Αλλά ήταν καθαρός από μικρόβια. Τούτο του έγινε ακόμα πιο ξεκάθαρο με τον καιρό. What readers say
This novel is celebrated for its lush language, emotional richness, and probing of memory and identity. Many readers find it a moving, immersive experience, though some call its melancholy and introspection slow.
Hernan Diaz.Díaz won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this novel, whose four parts each adopt a different literary form — a biography, a memoir, a thriller, a diary.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Παρακαταθήκη for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy novels built from documents and competing memories, and you don't mind a narrator who keeps you at a cool distance. Some readers find its melancholy and introspection slow.
- What is Παρακαταθήκη like?
- A cool, witty voice carries you through shifting accounts, with curiosity and awe gathering as memory and identity keep changing shape. Feels like curiosity, awe and wonder. About power, identity and memory.
- What should I read after Παρακαταθήκη?
- If you liked Παρακαταθήκη, try Yesteryear (Caro Claire Burke), Texas (James Michener) and The Secret History (Donna Tartt).
A taste of the feed
The voice policing a woman's anger often wears her own face.
A voice in my head, echoing softly: America hates angry women. The Lord hates angry women. You hate angry women. Do not be an angry woman.
Yesteryear · Caro Claire Burke
The man who decides who burns, carried on other men's shoulders.
“Look!” Garcilaço cried, and into the square where the kindling waited to be lit came four black slaves carrying the poles of a palanquin on which sat a prelate, dressed in deep purple and wearing an ornate miter, who stared steadfastly ahead. He was Bishop Zumárraga, most powerful churchman in Mexico and personally responsible for the arrest and sentencing of the two heretics who were to be burned. It was obvious from his stern countenance that he was not going to pardon the wretches.
Texas · James Michener
The idea that a life has one crack running down it, decided in advance.
DOES SUCH a thing as “the fatal flaw,” that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.
The Secret History · Donna Tartt
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