MOTH SMOKE
By Mohsin Hamid

FINALIST FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR You know you re in trouble when you can t meet a woman s eye, particularly if the woman happens to be your best friend s wife...' In Lahore, Daru Shezad is a junior banker with a hashish habit. When his old friend Ozi moves back to Pakistan, Daru wants to be happy for him. Ozi has everything: a beautiful wife and child, an expensive foreign education ? and a corrupt father who bankrolls his lavish lifestyle. As jealousy sets in, Daru s life slowly unravels. He loses his job. Starts lacing his joints with heroin. Becomes involved with a criminally-minded rickshaw driver. And falls in love with Ozi s lonely wife. But how low can Daru sink? Is he guilty of the crime he finds himself on trial for? Not often does one find a first novel that has the power of imagination and skill to orchestrate personal and public themes of these consequences and achieve a chord that reverberates in one's mind … One of the two or three best novels I have read this year' ? Nadine Gordimer An irresistibly engaging adventure and a searching portrait of contemporary young people in Pakistan'? Joyce Carol Oates A vivid portrait of contemporary young Pakistani life, where frustration and insecurity feed not only the snobbery, decadence and aspirations of the rich, but also the resentment of the poor' ? The Times Stunning . . .' ? Los Angeles Times Beautiful prose and uncomfortably acute insights' ? Guardian Brisk, absorbing, inventive. Hamid steers us from start to finish with assurance and care' ? The New York Times Book Review