Moth Smoke

Moth Smoke is a novel by the British Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid, published in 2000. It is his first novel, and it appeared around the time of the nuclear tests that the book uses as part of its background.

Darashikoh Shezad, known as Daru, is a mid-level banker in Lahore whose aggression served him well when he was a college boxer and does not serve him at all in his job. An outburst that is out of character gets him fired, and the loss of income brings home to him how much of his standing rested on money rather than on the qualities he thought he had.

He keeps company with the rich friends he has known since school, and the differences between them become harder to ignore now that he can no longer pay his own way. He becomes involved with Mumtaz, the wife of his closest friend, and with the city's trade in drugs, and the novel sets his story against the trial of the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh, whose name and fate echo his own. The book is narrated by several voices, including one that is cross-examining him.