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How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia Hardcover – 28 Mar. 2013
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is Mohsin Hamid's spectacular, thought-provoking novel of modern Asia
In this keenly-awaited follow-up to his bestselling The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid confirms his place as a radically inventive story-teller with his finger on the world's pulse.
The astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by youths all over 'rising Asia'. It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on the most fluid and increasingly scarce of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises alongside his, their paths crossing and re-crossing in a love affair sparked and snuffed out again by the forces that careen their fates along.
The hero of the story could be any one of us, hungry for a different life. And ours too could be the fate that awaits him . . .
Fast-paced, vivid and emotionally absorbing, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia creates two unforgettable characters who find moments of transcendent intimacy in the midst of shattering change.
Praise for How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia:
'Even more intriguing, compelling and moving than The Reluctant Fundamentalist. A marvellous book' Philip Pullman
'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 global economy. Completely unforgettable' Dave Eggers
'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' Ben Fountain
'Written in the most compelling second person since Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, with which it also shares a sharp take on our frenetic, urban lives, Hamid's novel proves that the most compelling fiction today is coming from South Asia' Daily Beast
Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Moth Smoke. His fiction has been adapted for the cinema, translated into over 30 languages, received numerous awards, and been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He has contributed essays and short stories to publications such as the Guardian, The New York Times, Financial Times, Granta, and the New Yorker. Born and mostly raised in Lahore, he spent part of his childhood in California, studied at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, and has since lived between Lahore, London and New York.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHamish Hamilton
- Publication date28 Mar. 2013
- Dimensions14.4 x 2.5 x 22.2 cm
- ISBN-100241144663
- ISBN-13978-0241144664
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Product description
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Hamish Hamilton; First Edition (28 Mar. 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0241144663
- ISBN-13 : 978-0241144664
- Dimensions : 14.4 x 2.5 x 22.2 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,240,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,923 in Business Humour
- 1,965 in Fatherhood (Books)
- 2,917 in Satires
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Mohsin Hamid is the author of five novels -- Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Exit West, and The Last White Man -- and a book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations.
His writing has been translated into forty languages, featured on bestseller lists, and adapted for the cinema.
Born in Lahore, he has spent about half his life there and much of the rest in London, New York, and California.
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Structure: This book is written in the form of a self help book, in typical self help style chapters include `learn from a master' and `work for yourself'. Although it talks about its own status as a self help book it is in fact a novel and therefore uses the second person to act as the protagonist For example: `The whites of your eyes are yellow, a consequence of spiking bilirubin levels in your blood'.
What I liked: This felt like one of the most original books I have ever read. The particularly arresting element of this novel is of course the use of second person. The narrator directly addressing the reader as `you' just pulls you into the action and keeps you involved in the story all the way through. This also means that this novel comments on the reader/author relationship in a really natural way.
I also really liked how characters were left unnamed, his mother and father are simply called that and a love interest of his is called, `the pretty girl'. At first I wasn't sure about this because I thought characters might be hard to keep track of but the beautiful simplicity of the narrative stops that from happening.
It also has a great pace, the chapters are fairly short and it makes for quite an easy read.
What I didn't like: If anything it was a little short, I devoured the book so quickly that I just wanted to read it again. (I hope to pick up the authors other works soon).
Recommendation: This is a new favourite of mine and I would genuinely recommend this book to everyone it is a wonderfully simple but also daringly original book that I think a wide variety of readers would enjoy.
Another book you might like: If you enjoy the use of second person in this book you might also enjoy If on a Winters Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. Calvino's book is a more difficult read as it has a maze of a narrative but the use of second person is really engaging and very much like Hamid's novel `you' as the reader represent the main character.
Rating: 5/5
“Where once your clan was innumerable, not infinite but of a large number not readily known, now there are five of you. Five. The fingers on one hand, the toes on one foot, a minuscule aggregation when compared with shoals of fish or flocks of birds or indeed tribes of humans. In the history of the evolution of the family, you and the millions of other migrants like you represent an ongoing proliferation of the nuclear. It is an explosive transformation, the supportive, stifling, stabilizing bonds of extended relationships weakening and giving way, leaving in their wake insecurity, anxiety, productivity, and potential. Moving to the city is the first step to getting filthy rich in rising Asia. And you have now taken it. Congratulations.”
Hamid, Mohsin (2013-03-05). How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel (Kindle Locations 162-167). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.
As a man who lives in a logical, virtual world of bits and bytes, this wonderful tome has improved my emotional intelligence. I now buy hardback copies of this book, add a message in ink pen (which itself uses muscles that I forgot that I had!) and gift them liberally to colleagues that I have regular contact with. If they ‘get’ a similar feeling or understanding as me of how the world turns as a result of reading this book (or if they just read it at all in some cases!) I make an effort to turn them into ‘friends’.
So, contrary to what some other reviewers write, "How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia" is indeed a ‘self-help book’ after all!
Corruption, a ruthless streak and greed born of poverty is the quick answer to the question posed by the title. In the clamour and pollution of a burgeoning city in Asia, one has to make a living however one can, and this book gives countless examples of the scams, hassles and the greasing of palms that are an integral part of survival. Life, for almost everyone, is both a struggle and a disappointment, ergo the embittered betel-nut-spitting, tubercular school teacher, whose dream was to work for a meter-reading company - which would have afforded him endless opportunities for fiddling the system.
It’s a culture where policemen and taxmen are bribed. Canned, imported goods (tuna, soup, lychee juice) get through Customs without paying import duty and have their expiry date erased and reprinted. And failed school or college exams can always be falsified (if you get a place at university, it will be alongside 30,000 other hopeful students). It’s a world where effluent trickles out of an old textile plant, mingling with the official water supply: where it’s a given that, at some stage you’ll contract Hepatitis E from faecal/oral transmission; where surgery for cancer is available but hormone and radiotherapy treatments are not.
Needless to say, the principal character becomes a filthy rich, successful businessman. His struggles as a lad – delivering pirated DVDs by bicycle and buying small quantities of milk to supplement a diet deficient in protein – are a distant memory and he starts to inhabit a world of top-of-the-range SUVs, uniformed guards and gated compounds.
This (loosely-termed) self-help book incorporates a love story and a moral message - do unto others as you yourself would wish to be done by. That said, the end will come as no surprise.








