Small-time crook Hamid's search for his missing girlfriend pulls him into the orbit of a charismatic social-media imam.

Tax fraud, telemarketing tricks, government scams. If you're tired of receiving these phone calls, imagine the guys making them.

Hamid Shaikh is a small-time crook in the big city, hoping that one of his cons will lead to riches. When he's not working the phones hustling bogus duct-cleaning...

Small-time crook Hamid's search for his missing girlfriend pulls him into the orbit of a charismatic social-media imam.

Tax fraud, telemarketing tricks, government scams. If you're tired of receiving these phone calls, imagine the guys making them.

Hamid Shaikh is a small-time crook in the big city, hoping that one of his cons will lead to riches. When he's not working the phones hustling bogus duct-cleaning services, he dreams of a move that will finally announce his arrival.

When his girlfriend Natalie Mendoza vanishes, he finds himself pulled into the world of former Guantanamo Bay detainee turned social-media imam Abdul Mohammed. As Hamid dives deeper into Abdul's nebulous and luxurious world, he finds a confusing mix of religious fervour and cynical self-advancement, and must decide just how far into darkness he wants to go to get Natalie back.

A book of scams religious, political and economic, The Hypebeast is an utterly contemporary look at North American urban striving amid international geopolitical upheaval.