Pakistani novelist In his latest book, Exit West Mohsin Hamid narrates a surreal tale of passion, war and sectarian strife. In his book, Discontent and its Civilisation: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, London, the novelist, Mohsin Hamid reflects on life, art and politics in the shadow of terror and offers blend of personal and political reflection. He argues everyone has hybrid identities, and reinvents himself or herself in the course of a life. In his book, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid tackles the archetypal rags to riches story, adding contemporary sources of stress like religious sectarianism and looming environmental disaster. The author uses the form to explore the moral costs of the single-minded pursuit of money and how that quest often messes up the successful pursuit of happiness. His drawn characters is the Lahore-like metropolis, where fundamentalism, hypercapitalism and globalised culture rub up against rampant corruption and extreme poverty. A Betty Trask Award winner and a Pen/Hemmingway finalist Mohsin's first novel, Moth Smoke (2000) wove together a 17th century feudal intrigue with a modern banker's decadent demise, won a critical acclaim. But he made his breakthrough with his second book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) about a Princeton educated Pakistani whose views on Western culture sour after 9/11 and the American who may or may not have been sent to kill him. The second novel was published in 16 languages and short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. It is out now in paperback. The Reluctant Fundamentalist sold more than 1m copies worldwide and was made into a film directed by Mira Nair. Born in Lahore, Mohsin Hamid studied law at Harvard, and worked as a freelance journalist in Pakistan before moving to London in 2001. He is now based in Lahore.