Moth Smoke is a novel written by
Mohsin Hamid, published in
2000. It tells the story of Darashikoh Shezad, a banker in
Lahore,
Pakistan, who loses his job, falls in love with his best friend's wife, and plunges into a life of drugs and crime. It uses the historical trial of the liberal
Mughal prince
Dara Shikoh by his brother
Aurangzeb as an allegory for the state of Pakistan at the time of the
1998 nuclear tests.