Hustle, Baby

By: Priya Guns

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2026-07-14

From the incendiary voice behind Your Driver is Waiting, a fierce and unforgettable novel about a Tamil refugee family stealing from corporations to survive until their lives are up-ended by a day-trading scam, threatening what little security they have left.

It's hard to be a teenager at the turn of the millennium in America, and especially so for Dilo, who's always hustling to help her family get by. Since they arrived from Sri Lanka as Tamil refugees fleeing the civil war, one thing's become blindingly clear--the American Dream is bullshit. The system is rigged, so sometimes you have to cheat to win.

Their family lives hand-to-mouth, always working for their next meal, until her aunt Anjali brings home her new fling, Mark. A day trader who promises them the world, Mark takes $50 from Anajali's purse and turns it into $200 on the stock exchange, like water into wine. It must be a miracle, and the family quickly becomes enmeshed in his scheme, recruiting investors on his behalf, spreading the good word and the 10% profit. But when the bubble bursts, when Mark disappears, when Dilo ends up more betrayed than her whole family put together, she knows it's time to take matters into her own hands.

From the acclaimed author of Your Driver is Waiting, with "a ferocity of voice that belongs to Priya Guns alone" (Camille Perri, NYTBR), Hustle, Baby is a fearless and feral novel about an unhinged anti-hero with a score to settle, who will stop at nothing for revenge and redemption.