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How to Get Rich in Rising Asia
By: Mohsin Hamid

Written in the form of a self-help manual, the novel tells the story of a young man’s journey from poverty to wealth. The unnamed protagonist outlines the steps a young Asian must take to become successful, using his own experiences as an example. Born in squalor in a village, our narrator’s family eventually moves into the city, where he is able to get a decent education–a vital step in the process of acquiring wealth. In adolescence, he takes a job delivering DVDs and meets the love of his life, a young woman who provides his first sexual experience and then disappears–from his life, but not from his mind. After university, he works for a company that changes expiry dates on food labels. Here he gets the idea to bottle tap water and sell it creating an empire.