Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid · 2017
Buy on Amazon"In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet-- sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors-- doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through.…
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"Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid, which I consumed in one frantic gulp a day or two after the election. It blew the top off my head. It's at once terrifying and, in the end, oddly hopeful."
By the Book: Ayelet Waldman · nytimes.com
"I'd like to go back and reread it. I tore through it the first time as a reader, but I'd also like to study it as a writer, asking the question: 'How did he do that?'"
By the Book: Dani Shapiro · nytimes.com
"Mohsin Hamid's novels are so engaging, written with language so injectable, you only realize gradually that he's tackling enormous issues and that you're right in the middle of them."
By the Book: Delia Owens · nytimes.com