Check out Mohsin Hamid’s NPR “Fresh Air” interview about his new novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, with Terry Gross.
A compelling story that works on two levels — in this case as a deeply moving and highly specific tale of love and ambition, and as a larger, metaphorical look at the mind-boggling social and economic changes sweeping “rising Asia.”
It is a measure of Mr. Hamid’s audacious talents that he manages to make his protagonist’s story work on so many levels. “You” 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 generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.”
Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings, Ramona Ausubel’s A Guide to Being Born, are all on The Millions’ Most Anticipated Books of 2013 Preview list. Check ‘em out!
How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia… is an 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 ambitious youths all over ‘rising Asia’.
