about buying in

Bright, ambitious Sophie Landgraf has landed a job as a Wall Street analyst. The small-town girl finally has her ticket to the American elite, but she doesn't realize the toll it will take—on her boyfriend, on her family, and on her. It isn't long before Sophie is floundering in this male-dominated world, and things are about to get worse.

With the financial crisis looming, Sophie becomes embroiled in a multibillion-dollar merger that could make or break her career. The problem? Three men at the top of their game, each with very different reasons for advancing the merger. Now Sophie doesn't know who to trust—or how far she'll go to get ahead.

Set inside the high-stakes world of finance, Manhattan's after-hours clubs, and factories in the Midwest and India, this is the high-powered, heartfelt story of a young woman finding her footing on Wall Street as it crumbles beneath her. Written by an industry veteran, Buying In tackles what it means to be a woman in a man's world, and how to survive in big business without sacrificing who you are.

"Finally, a juicy Wall Street novel about a woman who's breaking up the boys' club."

— Glamour, 

December 2013

"The world of high finance provides a thrilling setting for Hemphill’s fine debut. The author...clearly knows her way around Wall Street, but, more importantly, can make us care about her characters’ successes and failures, against a formidable backdrop rife with competition, backstabbing, and soul-searching."

— Publishers Weekly, 

“Wall Street banker Laura Hemphill took her seven years laboring in the world of finance and spun them into a work of fiction that pulls back the door on life of the privileged elite.”

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 

“Former Wall Street financier Laura Hemphill pens a riveting novel about what it takes to make it in the world of finance, particularly as a young woman competing with the boys.”

— Metro, 

"A solid, suspenseful Wall Street tale."

— Kirkus, 

"We’re not through with these characters yet. It’s a testament to Hemphill’s talent that we want more, a lot more, of them."

— BookPage, 

"I read Buying In in one sitting. It sucks you into an adrenaline vortex ... a gripping and thought-provoking read."

— Anne-Marie Slaughter, 

author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and the former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State

"With assured prose and a compulsively readable plot, Buying In offers a front-row seat to the downfall of Wall Street, with a terrific young heroine who outmans the men without sacrificing her soul."

— Ayelet Waldman, 

author of Red Hook Road

"Laura Hemphill writes about Wall Street with the knowledge of an insider and the empathy of an outsider. Buying In is an absorbing study of high finance and the toll it takes on one's identity from a bright new literary talent."

— Teddy Wayne, 

author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

"Laura Hemphill deftly pulls off a hat trick, offering a clear-eyed take on the subprime lending crisis, a chilling look at the lives of women in banking, and a briskly entertaining coming of age story. You’ll be thinking about Sophie Landgraf long after you devour the novel’s final pages."

— Joanna Smith Rakoff, 

author of A Fortunate Age

“Hemphill effortlessly lays bare the complicated machinations of the banking industry with the breathless pacing of a thriller. A stunning debut which is sure to catapult the author onto must-read lists.”

— Allison Amend, 

author of A Nearly Perfect Copy