This might come as a surprise in Britain, where we hear a lot about the "new India", while Pakistan – which has seen a comparable, if more limited, boom – is generally portrayed as the poor, backward neighbour, afflicted by Islamist terrorism, insurgency and floods. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is set in Pakistan, not India, in a "megalopolis" that mostly resembles Hamid's home town, Lahore (though neither the country nor the city is named – in fact there's hardly a proper noun in sight). In Mohsin Hamid's dazzling third novel, we follow the rise and fall of one of these wheeler-dealers, these new lords of opportunity and profit. But they are skilled in the realm of opportunity and profit, and they are at home in the booming world of overlords, connections, bribes, political loopholes, sweeteners – and occasional violence – that sends their anglicised peers running for the nearest cappuccino." These people may come from smaller cities, they may be less worldly, and they may speak only poor English.
The old cosmopolitan elite have done well enough, with their degrees from Berkeley and Cambridge, and their jobs in banking and management consulting: "But they are surrounded by very different people – private businessmen, entrepreneurs, estate agents, retailers and general wheeler-dealers – who are making far more money than they are, and wielding more political power. A few years ago, Rana Dasgupta wrote an eye-opening article in Granta about India's new rich, in which he explained that the country's economic growth had been far too explosive for the small English-speaking upper class to monopolise its rewards.
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