Launch of Priya Guns' HUSTLE, BABY (with Catherine Hernandez and DJ Grumps)
About this Event
Scarborough will be the house tonight! Join us for the launch of the summer. Co-hosted by the Tam Fam Lit Jam, Another Story Bookshop and Penguin Canada.
With a reading by Priya Guns, conversation with Catherine Hernandez, snacks and amazing music by DJ Grumps!
Tickets are $10-20 sliding scale in advance or $20 at the door. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
From the incendiary voice behind Your Driver is Waiting, a riotous novel following a family of Tamil refugees who fled civil war in Sri Lanka to pursue a better life, just for it to be up-ended by the schemes of a self-proclaimed day-trading savant, jeopardizing everything they’ve worked so desperately to secure.
It’s hard enough to be a teenager at the turn of the millennium, and especially so for Dilo, who on top of juggling school and caring for her baby-cousin Maysha, is tasked with hustling to help her family get by. After Dilo’s born-again Christian mother, Mary, and Aunt Anji relocated the family from Sri Lanka fleeing the civil war, one thing’s become blindingly clear—the “rags-to-riches” fairytale they were promised is bullshit. The system is rigged, so sometimes you have to cheat to win.
Their family operates on the margins, working constantly to earn just enough to pay off their last meal. But they can only ignore stacks of overdue rent notices for so long, and when both matriarchs unexpectedly lose their jobs, desperation begins to set in. With eviction imminent, they are thrown a lifeline when they meet Mark, a swaggering day-trader, who promises to turn their small initial investment into thousands of dollars overnight on the stock exchange. At last, a miracle, and the family quickly become his apostles, recruiting investors by spreading the good word of his perpetual 10% returns. But they soon discover what really fuels Mark’s seemingly endless generosity, and when the markets turn they are left to navigate treacherous but familiar terrain. They must do what they always have, find a path where there isn’t one—survive.
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 one family’s quest to live the good life, and what happens when we push those with nothing past their breaking point.
PRIYA GUNS is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel Your Driver Is Waiting. A former teacher, she is an actor and an arborist in training whose previous work has been published in short story anthologies, gal-dem, Spring magazine, and anonymously in the Guardian.
CATHERINE HERNANDEZ (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is part of the Filipinx diaspora and married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, Scarborough was a finalist for several awards including Canada Reads 2022. She wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Scarborough, which was nominated for 11 Canadian Screen Awards and won 8 including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Her other critically acclaimed novels include Crosshairs, The Story of Us, and Behind You, which was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Both Behind You and The Story of Us are being developed into feature films, with Catherine writing the screenplay. She is working on several TV and film projects, including showrunning CBC Gem/Apartment 11/Avenida Productions’ The Unstoppable Jenny Garcia.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 13.48 to CAD 25.50
