Moth Smoke

From the internationally bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, theand#160;boldly imagined tale of a poor boyand#8217;s quest for wealth and love . . .

His first two novels established Mohsin Hamid as a radically inventive storyteller with his finger on the worldand#8217;s pulse. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia meets that reputationand#151;and exceeds it. The astonishing and riveting tale of a manand#8217;s journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over and#147;rising Asia.and#8221; It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on thatand#160;most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is a striking slice of contemporary life at a time of crushing upheaval. Romantic without being sentimental, political without being didactic, and spiritual without being religious, it brings an unflinching gaze to the violence and hope it depicts. And it creates two unforgettable characters who find moments of transcendent intimacy in the midst of shattering change.

"Stunning… [Hamid] has created a hip page-turner about [his] mysterious country." -Los Angeles Times

"A brisk, absorbing novel… inventive… trenchant… Hamid steers us from start to finish with assurance and care." -Jhumpa Lahiri, The New York Times Book Review 

"Pakistan, seventh most populous country in the world, is one of the countries whose literature has been overlooked. Now its chair has been taken, and looks to be occupied for years to come, by the extraordinary new novelist Mohsin Hamid." -The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A subtly audacious work and prodigious descendant of hard-boiled lit and film noir… Moth Smoke is a steamy and often darkly amusing book about sex, drugs, and class warfare in postcolonial Asia." -The Village Voice

"Fast-paced, intelligent." -The New Yorker

"Friends, a love triangle, murder, criminal justice, hopelessness, humidity. Its set in Lahore, theres a beautiful woman. Her name is Mumtez and she smokes pot and cigarettes and drinks straight Scotch. Read this book. Fall in love." -Publishers Weekly

"The most impressive of his gifts is the clearsightedness of his look at the power structure of a society that has shifted from the old feudalism, based on birth, to the new Pakistani feudalism based on wealth." -The New York Review of Books  

"Sharply observed… elegant and evocative… a substantial achievement." -Financial Times

"Brilliant… As relevant now as it was upon first publication twelve years ago." -The Millions

PRAISE FOR HOW TO GET FILTHY RICH IN RISING ASIA

and#8220;A showcase for its authorand#8217;s audacious talentsand#8230; both an affecting and highly specific tale of love and ambition, and a larger metaphorical look at the startling social and economic changes that are and#8230; changing the lives of millionsand#8221; -- Michiko Kakutani, in her and#8220;10 Favorite Books of 2013,and#8221; The New York Times

A Foreign Policy Leading Global Thinker

Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

Namedand#160;a Best or Notable Book of 2013 byand#160;The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune,and#160;Vogue, Apple, The Observer (London), The Sunday Times (London), and#160;Financial Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, Kansas City Star, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Book Page, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews

A Vogue "Favorite Novelist"

and#8220;It is a measure of Mr. Hamidand#8217;s audacious talents that he manages to make his protagonistand#8217;s story work on so many levels. and#8216;Youand#8217; is, at once, a modern-day Horatio Alger, representing the desires and frustrations of millions in rising Asia; a bildungsroman hero, by turns knavish and recognizably human, who sallies forth from the provinces to find his destiny; and a nameless but intimately known soul, whose bittersweet romance with the pretty girl possesses a remarkable emotional power. With How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia Mr. Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generationand#8217;s most inventive and gifted writers.and#8221; and#8211;Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

and#8220;Thanks to Hamid's meticulous use of detailand#8212;and his sympathy for a man on the make in a society of endemic povertyand#8212;we engage deeply with a serious character whose essence remains his own yet who stands as a figure representative of his time and place, an effect only the best novelists can createand#8230; This tale of an unscrupulous striver may bring to mind a globalized version of The Great Gatsby. Given the unabashed gimmickry of Hamid's how-to design, it's a pleasant surprise to find that his book is nearly that good.and#8221; and#8211;Alan Cheuse, NPR

"A love story and bildungsroman disguised as a self-help book, and the result has all the inventiveness, exuberance and pathos that the writer's fans have come to expectand#8230;and#160;Marvelous and moving." and#8211;TIME Magazine

and#8220;Extraordinarily cleverand#8230; Hamid has taken the most American form of literatureand#8212;the self-help bookand#8212;and transformed it to telland#8230; a surprisingly moving story.and#8221; and#8211;Ron Charles, The Washington Post

and#8220;The marriage ofand#8230; two curiously compatible genresand#8212;self-help and the old-fashioned bildungromanand#8212;is just one of the pleasures of Mohsin Hamidand#8217;s shrewd and slippery new novel, a rags-to-rishes story that works on a head-splitting number of levels. Itand#8217;s a love story and a study of seismic social change. It parodies a get-rich-quick book and gestures to a new direction for the novel, all in prose so pure and purposeful it pases straight through into the bloodstream. It intoxicates.and#8221; and#8211;Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review

and#8220;Wonderfully astringentand#8230; Hamid is a sly witness to a traditional cultureand#8217;s dizzying trajectoryand#8212;supermodels stalk city billboards; a drone hovers ominously in the skyand#8212;but his satiric impulse gives way to compassion for the intimacies that keep us tethered in a rapidly changing world.and#8221; and#8211;Vogue

and#8220;This is one of those original works that are also resonant as a record of human experience and geo-political shift, and a strong argument for Hamid as one of the most important writers working today. An enjoyable read no matter who and#8216;youand#8217; are.and#8221; and#8211;The Daily Beast

"Relentlessly brilliantand#8230; Hamid is a master stylist, and his third novel is, I think, his best thus farand#8230; There is something so rich and so deeply authentic in [the protagonistand#8217;s] romance that its rendering alone hooks the readerand#8230; the novel ends with one of the most stunning final sentences Iand#8217;ve read in contemporary fiction, a sentence that no review will ever quote, but an indelible sentence, which will live in your heart, mind, and soul long after you read it." and#8211;The Los Angeles Review of Books

"Dazzlingand#8230; an addictive, muscular piece of storytellingand#8230; [How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia] shows a writer at the height of his powers, with a hell of a story to telland#8230; a tremendous novel: tender, sharp and formally daring, a portal into a fast-moving, vividly realised world." and#8211;The Guardian

"Mohsin Hamidand#8217;s latest novel boasts a startlingly distinctive voice as commanding and unadorned as its title." and#8211;Pico Iyer, The New York Times Book Review

"Hamid exercises perfect control as he spins the life story of one man's struggle with turbulent times and economics in his unnamed Asian city. It's an impressive feat that he reveals this life, infancy to death, in a little more than 200 pages. That he achieves this with humor and pathos, and creates a last line that evokes the sweep of Molly Bloom's soliloquy in Ulyssesand#8212;well, it knocked the skepticism right out of meand#8230; Vivid, pungent and sweet, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is the kind of well-told literary novel that restores faith in the genre. More of this, please."and#160;and#8211;Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Hamid is as much an inventive stylist as he is a gifted storytellerand#8230; As a result, his novels are compulsively readable, and "Rising Asia" is no exceptionand#8230; Tremendously profound and entertaining." and#8211;Alex Gilvarry, Boston Globe

and#8220;Bracingly inventiveand#8230; it might be the best book you read in 2013.and#8221; and#8211;V Magazine

"Astoundingand#8230; An ambitious, moving story about love and loneliness [that] constantly surprisesand#8230; by reinventing itself just as characters reinvent themselvesand#8230; At the heart of the book is [the] consideration of what it means to succeed, to rise or toand#160;help oneself. How does one live and die? and#8230;The questions simmer below the surface of this tremendous, wise and surprisingly moral book." and#8211;The San Francisco Chronicle

and#8220;An utter delightand#8230; How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asiaand#160;is one of the most tender narratives you will ever readand#8230; Amazing.and#8221; and#8211;Counterpunch

and#8220;Hamid is one of the best writers working todayand#8230; How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is filled with flashes of brilliance, deeply moving passages, and and#8230; beautifully clear prose.and#8221; and#8211;The Millions

and#8220;Mohsin Hamidand#8217;s hotly anticipated new book tells the story of young love between capitalism and the latest target of its cupidand#8217;s arrow: Asiaand#8230; Political, romantic, exciting, and a page-turner throughout.and#8221; and#8211;Harperand#8217;s Bazaar

"Brilliantand#8230; In its cleverness, its slightly cruel satire and its complex understanding of both Western and Eastern paradigms, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is pure Hamidand#8230; His storytelling style is both timeless and contemporary, a postmodern Scheherazadeand#8230;and#160;This novel is smart about many things, including medicine and the processes of death, but is smartest of all about literature itself.and#8221; and#8211;Marion Winik,and#160;Newsday

"Isnand#8217;t this the definition of great fiction, that even when it begins with a character (tubercular, hiding on the dirt floor under his motherand#8217;s cot) whoand#8217;s nothing like you, by the end you are convinced that it really is about you? Thatand#8217;s a kind of miracle, of the sort that self-help books can only dream of achieving." and#8211;Salon

"The protagonist, who Hamid also calls 'you,' is, despite the absence of a name or identified origin, a wonderfully particularized personand#8230; when, in the last stages of life, 'you' gains a measure of serenity and wisdom, you have tears in your eyes and know that Hamidand#8217;s novel has done that which few novels are capable of: It has deepened feeling and provoked questions about the meaning of your own worldand#8230; gripping storytelling.and#8221; and#8211;Washington Independent Review of Books

and#8220;The kind of game Leo Tolstoy might have written, clear-eyed in its dissection of human folly, ambition and love.and#8221; and#8211;Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

and#8220;Although Hamid's fictional works vary in style and substance, a distinctive sensibility pervades all three: simultaneously warm and ironic, elegant and profane, urbane but equipped with a strong B.S. detector.and#8221; and#8211;The Los Angeles Times

"In just 12 crisp chapters, you go from a diseased rural nobody to the model of self-made success. It is quite a journeyand#8230; [A] considerable literary talent [who] deploy[s] the second-person narrative with astonishing skilland#8230; Hamid depicts a land where getting rich is not so much a luxury as a survival tactic." and#8211;The Economist

and#8220;My recommendation for book groups this month is Mohsin Hamid's wry third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and it might just satisfy both reluctant and bold literary explorers. It is at once accessible and exotic, and most definitely filthy rich in fresh material for literary discussionand#8230; [that] offers a surprisingly heartfelt conclusion.and#8221; and#8211;Christian Science Monitor

"An astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon." and#8211;The Nation

and#8220;Fiction fans should be grateful Mohsin Hamid left his New York corporate cubicle to pursue his grand ambitions of becoming a novelist.and#8221; and#8211;The Atlantic

and#8220;Effervescentand#8230; a universal story, wrought in tightly minimal, evocative proseand#8230; Mr. Hamid has delivered a payload more nourishing than any self-help book.and#8221; and#173;and#8211;The New York Observer

"A powerful reverie on life in a time of soul-shaking change." and#8211;Businessweek

"Hamidand#8217;s choice to write a bildungsroman wrapped inside a self-help manual is an inspired oneand#8230; Hamid has left us with no doubts about how state and market, law and crime, nation and corporation, and money and violence go togetherand#8212;in rising Asia as in the rest of the world." and#8211;Bookforum

and#8220;Mohsin Hamid is one of the most talented and formally audacious writers of his generation, and his electrifying new noveland#8230; is a vital and affecting portrait of a teeming and significant, but largely unrecorded culture. It is a bold formal experiment contained within an elegant novella. It is moving and charming and funny. When you reach the end, you want to go straight back to the beginning. And yesand#8212;that does mean you.and#8221; and#8211;The Telegraph

and#8220;Mohsin Hamidand#8217;s third noveland#8230; is many thingsand#8212;a love story; an interrogation of the purpose of literary fiction; a portrait of an Asian cityand#8230; In its compassionate glimpse into anotherand#8217;s life, Hamidand#8217;s novel suggests that the routes to success prescribed by self-help books are less hopeful and compelling than the moments that a novel so treasures, the moments in which life is lived.and#8221; and#8211;The Sunday Telegraph

and#8220;An ultra-intelligent and knowing account of life in the developing world, as well as an increasingly moving love-storyand#8230; Simply brilliant.and#8221; and#8211;The Daily Mail

and#8220;Daringly originaland#8230; page-turning.and#8221; and#8211;The Independent

and#8220;Cast as a self-help book, about one man's rise from poverty to wealthand#8230; Hamidand#8217;s beautifully conceived and exquisitely executed novel demonstrates that, in the right hands, narratorial tricks can be a serious matter, affording slants on the big realities and myths of our time unavailable to meat-and-potato realism.and#8221; and#8211;Adam Lively, The Sunday Times

and#8220;How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia turns out to be as much moral fable as it is satire. Fortunately, Hamid makes each mode as fresh as the other.and#8221; and#8211;New Statesman

and#8220;The many selves of You, our hero, form a portrait gallery of a disconnected man in a discontinuous world. Self-help books that arenand#8217;t a novel try to make sense of all this. And fail.and#8221; and#8211;Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times

"At once a quietly moving story of an individual man and a sweeping epic chronicling the economic, social and cultural development of an entire region of the world." and#8211;Vox Magazine

"Hamidand#8217;s story is at once fable-like and existentialand#8230; the novel is a parable about a new kid of loneliness, a homelessness quite different from the one characteristic of the protagonistand#8217;s impoverished and uncertain beginnings." and#8211;The Financial Times

"How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is dead short and narrated in a weird way that rarely gets done in novelsand#8230; Itand#8217;s a winning and surprisingly readable bash at some pretty wild experimentation. Hamidand#8217;s portrait of rising Asia makes bold use of a newfangled way of compressing a whole life into 200 zipalong and#8216;hit bookand#8217; pages." and#8211;Dazed and Confused

"Ambition rules in this playful third novel... subtle and rich." and#8211;Publishers Weekly

and#8220;This brilliantly structured, deeply felt book is written with the confidence and bravura of a man born to write. Hamid is at the peak of his considerable powers here, and delivers a tightly paced, preternaturally wise book about a thoroughly likable, thoroughly troubled striver in the messiest, most chaotic ring of the global economy. Completely unforgettable.and#8221; and#8211;Dave Eggers, author of A Hologram for the King

"Mohsin Hamid is one of the best writers in the world, period. Only a master could have written this propulsive tale of a striver living on the knife's edge, a noir Horatio Alger story for our frenetic, violent times. The road to filthy riches is nasty, brutish, and long, yet Hamid's talent is such that we see the humanity in all this strivingand#8212;indeed, on finishing this extraordinary book, one wonders if the striving might be the sincerest expression of our flawed, fragile humanity." and#8211;Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

and#8220;A dazzling stylistic tour de force; a love story disguised as a self-help guide, freighted with sly social satire. As timely and timeless a novel as Iand#8217;ve read in years.and#8221; and#8211;Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City and How It Ended

and#8220;A marvelous book.and#8221; and#8211;Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass

Fast-paced and unexpected, Moth Smoke was ahead of its time in portraying a contemporary Pakistan far more vivid and complex than the exoticized images of South Asia then familiar to the West. It established Mohsin Hamid as an internationally important writer of substance and imagination and thepremier Pakistani author of our time, a promise he has amply fulfilled with each successive book. This debut novel, meanwhile, remains as compelling and deeply relevant to the moment as when it appeared more than a decade ago.

Available for the first time from Riverhead—the debut novel from the bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamids deftly conceived first novel, immediately marked him as an uncommonly gifted and ambitious young literary talent to watch when it was published in 2000. It tells the story of Daru Shezad, who, fired from his banking job in Lahore, begins a decline that plummets the length of Hamids sharply drawn, subversive tale.

Fast-paced and unexpected, Moth Smoke was ahead of its time in portraying a contemporary Pakistan far more vivid and complex than the exoticized images of South Asia then familiar to the West. It established Mohsin Hamid as an internationally important writer of substance and imagination and the premier Pakistani author of our time, a promise he has amply fulfilled with each successive book. This debut novel, meanwhile, remains as compelling and deeply relevant to the moment as when it appeared more than a decade ago.