An irresistibly engaging adventure and a searching portrait of contemporary young people in Pakistan ... Confiding, witty, self-lacerating, arrogant and humble, and unfailingly convincing. Joyce Carol Oates The year is 1998, the summer of Pakistans nuclear tests, and Darashikoh Shezad has just managed to lose his job in Lahore. As the economy crumbles around him, his electricity is cut off, and the jet set parties behind high walls, Daru takes the bright steps of falling for his best friends wife and giving heroin a try. This is the story of his decline. People dont believe in consequences anymore, says one of Mohsin Hamids extraordinary characters. 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 ones mind. This novel does... This writer uncovers what people want to ignore about themselves.