Exit West
Exit West is a 2017 novel by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. It is Hamid's fourth novel. The main themes of the novel are emigration and refugee problems. The novel, which can be considered fantasy or speculative fiction, is about a young couple, Saeed and Nadia, who live in an unnamed city undergoing civil war and finally have to flee, using a system of magical doors that lead to different locations around the globe. Hamid has recently emerged as a respected writer and writes Exit West during a time of much controversy over refugees and immigration. Scholars analyze Exit West for its suggestions about global politics, use of technology, and calls for better treatment of the environment. Exit West won Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2017) and Aspen Words Literary Prize (2018) and was shortlisted for a number of other awards. Background Since 2010, Hamid has emerged as an author known for writing fiction that explores alternate ways of global living and emphasizes the disadvantages of being born in a third-world country. Hamid wrote Moth Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), and then Exit West in 2017. All four stories focus on the experiences and journeys of characters originally from Pakistan. Written within the era of Trump and Brexit, Mohsin Hamid wrote Exit West as a way for readers to look at the refugee crisis from a different perspective. Hamid explains that borders for countries are extremely “unnatural” and the issue with migrants and refugees is that their movement is thought of as a problem that needs to be solved. Hamid believes that refugees and migrants, or anyone for that matter, should be able to travel freely throughout the world. Hamid also explains that reading can help people see things from a different perspective, which means that people can become more cognizant of others’ situations and see solutions they never thought possible before. Hamid wrote Exit West to broaden people’s thoughts about the refugee crisis. He wanted to give readers an alternative perspective on how the people could operate in one world instead of one nation. With the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and his strict border policies, Hamid is trying to show readers that a world without borders is not only possible, but desirable. Plot Nadia and Saeed meet when they are working students in an unnamed city. Saeed is more conservative and still lives at home, as custom generally requires, but the more independent Nadia has chosen to live alone and has been disowned by her parents for doing so. Saeed and Nadia fall for each other slowly and then all at once. War speeds up their courtship, the way it seems to hasten everything. After Saeed's mother is killed by a stray bullet while searching for a lost earring in her car, Nadia moves in with Saeed and his father, despite not wanting to marry Saeed as propriety requires. As the militants successfully wrest control of