The Noble Hustle

In 2011, Grantland magazine gave bestselling novelist Colon Whitehead $10,000 to play at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was the assignment of a lifetime, with just one hitch, he'd never played in a casino tournament before. With just six weeks to train, our humble narrator took the Greyhound to Atlantic City to learn the ways of high-stakes Texas Hold'em.

Poker culture, he discovered, is marked by joy, heartbreak, and grizzled veterans playing against teenage hotshots weaned on Internet gambling. Not to mention the not-to-be-overlooked issue of coordinating Port Authority bus schedules with your kid's drop-off and pickup at school. Finally arriving in Vegas for the multimillion-dollar tournament, Whitehead brilliantly details his progress, both literal and existential, through the event's antes and turns, trough its gritty moments of calculation, hope, and spectacle. Entertaining, ironic, and strangely profound, this epic search for meaning at the World Series of Poker is a sure bet.

"Astonishing...Witty.... Tom Wolfe crossed with Tom Pynchon." -The Washington Post

"Whitehead proves a brilliant sociologist of the poker world." -The Boston Globe

"The Noble Hustle, part love letter, part dark confessional, captures perfectly the mix of neurosis and narrative that makes gambling so appealing." -Mother Jones

Colson Whitehead is the New York Times bestselling author of Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays, The Colossus of New York, A Pulitzer Prize finalist, a recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.