Mohsin Hamid

"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, thrust into 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"--

A Novel

Exit West

Lindsay

fira

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 *A Barack Obama top ten book of 2017* WINNER of the LA Times Prize for Fiction * WINNER of the Aspen Words Literary Prize 'Astonishing' Zadie Smith * 'Stunning' Spectator * 'Extraordinary' TLS An extraordinary story of love and hope from the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist All over the world, doors are appearing. They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives. And in a city gripped by war, Nadia and Saeed are newly in love. Hardly more than strangers, desperate to survive, they open a door and step through. But the doors only go one way. Once you leave, there is no going back. 'One of the year's most significant literary works' The New York Times 'A masterpiece' Michael Chabon 'Addictively readable and brilliantly written. Fantastic' Mail on Sunday Nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Awards for Best Novel Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2018 and finalist for the Neustadt Prize 2018

SHORTLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017

Matt Midgette

Rahma Ali

I throughly enjoyed the plot of the beginning, and end of this book but the middle moves a little too quick for my liking. The writing style is also rough to keep up with since it's all run on sentences. Though the time skip at the end was a bit jarring, final chapter is one of my favorites. 

Brynn Sklar

safs

the love child of a gcse english essay and a preteen wattpad story - every bit as bad a reading experience as you can imagine

Taha

Review
This book explores its themes really poorly and the refugee/immigration plot devices were handled awfully. In my opinion, the idea of <spoiler>"magic doors"</spoiler> forcing mass migration is a really promising one but the author does not consider any of the ramifications of this in any depth. The whole narrative starts to feel like someone wrote this book for a year 9 English class. Given this is considered speculative fiction, there isn't much speculation going on. Throughout the book, there are small vignettes of different scenes from across the world. I think this was supposed to demonstrate the multifaceted, wide reaching effects of this but it ends up falling flat and really muddled.

Many of the references and writing around sex in the book felt irrelevant and had me wondering why so much text had been dedicated to it. Additionally, there is a really puzzling part right at the end, about a random maid that truly felt like it was a passage from a different book that had been pasted into the novel by accident. I had to check in a different edition of the book to make sure it actually wasn't a mistake.

The only reason this book has any stars at all is that the relationship between the two characters at the beginning was endearing. I felt invested in the characters - at least for the first half of the book. However, in the second half, the story loses all steam and the character development grinds to a halt - which leaves the whole experience feeling very empty. I felt sadness for their story arcs, which may have been the point. But I think I was sorry for the authors inability to give the characters in a good story rather than sad at their ordeal.

It's a mystery to me how this was so critically acclaimed other than via the collective white guilt of western liberals.

Recommend to a friend? No
Read again? No
Inspired me to create? No
Filled me with the inescapable dread that I will never be able to make something as good as this? No

azliana aziz

Random immediate question after finishing this book was:

Can anyone pinpoint the exact geographic location of Saeed and Nadia because I think Mohsin Hamid gave lots of clues scattered across the novel? For sure it's South Asia, most probably Pakistan but I just want to know the actual correct country.
(I'm just so lazy and mostly sad to go back and read again)

Okay now proper thoughts here we go.

This little gem was packed with lots of things that need days and lots of pondering for me to properly digest it all. I will not be a broken record in trying to talk about every greatness of the book because it is an amazing book!
no doubt about that so I'll just jot what things speak to me the most.

1. The concept of apocalypse uniting people instead of breaking us down. 

2. It is about connection through and through. The bond we shared with another person, the place, the time, the memories were all very important and what made us. 

3. As bleak as we perceived our future seems to be heading, hang on to that tiny sliver piece of hope that we will reach better place. Probably not soon, probably not for us but think of those who comes after us and hope for them. 

4. Faith. 

5. What Mohsin Hamid wrote re the arcs of a parent's and a child's was truly splendidly beautiful and heartbreaking in ways it was so honest, insightful and genuine. 

Transcendent, evocative and deceptively simple book that punched it's way to your heart effortlessly.

hileahrious

Weird style... interesting discussion of the nation and borders and displacement... although all of that seemed like fluffy detail compared to what I interpret as the real point of the book: the ebb and flow of a relationship. Also it seems like the author is trying too hard to make the language as nonchalantly poetic as possible. Not sure I’d recommend it.

"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, thrust into 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 violence and the threat of violence escalate, 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. An epic compressed into a slender page-turner, Exit West is both completely of our time and for all time."--

Valeria M

Wynter

I'm having a hard time gathering my thoughts on this one, but here goes nothing.

I'm loving the way this book is written. A lot of reviewers mentioned that the grammatical structure in Exit West is making it difficult to read, but on the contrary, it worked very well for me. Maybe it's because the flood of endless sentences makes the narrative feel like a river of emotions. Maybe I too am guilty of run-on sentences and generous punctuation use, and thus I consider myself right at home. Whatever the reason, I find Hamid's use of language beautiful. 

The use of magical realism is perfectly done - not too much, not too little. The desperate need of the characters to find their way out of the war torn country is so strong, it literally manifests itself in a physical portal to safety. Perhaps it's a bit of an obvious metaphor, but what else can describe the migration crisis more accurately?

Finally, the characters themselves are endearing - I really enjoyed following their story. Besides, the gender dynamics are not something you see a lot of male authors write. You have the free and assertive Nadia, while her male counterpart Saeed is more of a quiet traditionalist. Their relationship starts suddenly and moves along fast, fuelled by the dangers of war. Once they escape that immediate crisis they are forced to reevaluate the interdependence they've built for themselves. It's an interesting evolution to witness.

I think Exit West has a serious shot at Man Booker this year.

Beautifully written; a little difficult to get into in the beginning but I enjoyed it once I got into its rhythm 

Sarah Wilson

Katherine Yang

A gently moving, quietly poignant story about a couple fleeing from war across borders and time to new lives. More than that, the story of Nadia and Saeed is mirrored in many ways by those of others, of a long-separated mother and daughter, of an rootless old veteran, of two elderly men finding companionship in each other, a mute maid unwilling to move from service. Though the emotions run deep and the stories feel true, Hamid keeps distance from the characters and situations, such that our protagonists' war-torn country could be any country, and these side stories could be any stories, and these migrants could be any people, and we are all at least "migrants through time". Indeed, in this story about transience and change and acceptance, Hamid places heavy emphasis on time and cycles. This is apparent thematically in the old woman being a "migrant through time" and migrants making barters "of time", but also in Hamid's distinctive writing style: distinctively long and meandering sentences each seem to take their time to arrive at their destination, noticing and reflecting on much on the way, even once, memorably, describing a woman's experiences in a house through childhood and marriages and deaths, such that her lifetime seemed to be encapsulated from beginning to end in a single sentence. 

Plus: bi representation, humanistic characterisations of religion, and a generally deeply-felt and -expressed appreciation of humanity. A lot of very nice things to appreciate in this book. (Thanks, Adam, for the copy! :))

Charlotte Dann

I did not like this book. The omnipotent perspective really grated on me, the whole thing felt like a condescending parable. The magical realism played into the story he was trying to tell with his characters, but he treaded lightly around the global implications of border-collapsing doors to anywhere. I don't think a soft romance does that (admittedly great) concept justice.

Prashanth Srivatsa

A poignant, dystopian tale of migrants. More than the tribulations of a strained relationship (that literally goes all over the place and lands rather poorly), it's the effort of seeking community in a strange land that resonated, and sticks.

Shona Tiger

Intriguing book. Very poetic! And thought-provoking

Amy Thibodeau

Alexandra Sklar

The characters in this felt like they were at arms length.

Siya S

It was good around the first five chapters, then it got incredibly boring because the narration just went on and on and on like listening to a person talking about things you might have been able to relate to if not for the excessive use of words as an attempt to be able to relate to an audience. Too many words. I like the ending, though.

Janice Hopper

Here's another book I picked up because Ian and Kristyn were reading it for The Writer and the Critic podcast. 

It's mostly the story of two people's journeys into and out of a relationship, into and out of other countries as refugees. The number of refugees in the world is increasing. And suddenly, here and there all over the world, doors to other places are opening, literally. One day that door in the shed may just lead into the shed; the next day, it may open into a mansion in London, or onto a beach in Greece. As you can imagine, this causes some uproar and disruption among the "nativists", i.e., the people in the countries to which the refugees are fleeing. In this alternative universe, Things Work Out, mostly.

Except for the lovers who are central to the story. Their journeys take them far from home, and, eventually, away from each other. Not in a horrible bad way, though. They just grow apart.

It's a deep dive into the minds of refugees and folks just trying to find a place to live that's at peace.

I listened to the audio read by the author. He did an ok job, but my feeling is that most authors are NOT the best people to narrate their own books. His pacing of the reading was a little less smooth than I like. It was ok, but not outstanding.

It's a short book, and it kinda broke my heart.

Chiyeung lau

Wow, I was blown away. This is a beautiful story about migration and it’s hard not to see the parallels between the refugee crisis within this book and in our world. A must read for our times.

Zee Abbas 

Beautiful writing, though I found myself skipping paragraphs often. Very song-like, rhythmic, thought provoking story. Had it's ups and downs, but overall quite enjoyable

Discover the unforgettable novel picked among 2017's most anticipated books by the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Buzzfeed, New York Timesand many more...An extraordinary story of love and hope, travelling from the Middle East to London and beyond, from the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Reluctant FundamentalistNadia and Saeed are two ordinary young people, attempting to do an extraordinary thing - to fall in love - in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it. Civil war has come to the city which Nadia and Saeed call home. Before long they will need to leave their motherland behind - when the streets are no longer useable and the unknown is safer than the known. They will join the great outpouring of people fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world . . .

Dave Perkins

Love how he manages to find a common human-ness across cultures. 👌🏻

The doors concept is such a clever way of getting into the mind and feelings of someone fleeing a country. Hope that these doors open up soon 🙏🏻.

Zahia Saeed 

Where do I start?! This book is amazing and very different from what I read. I love love love it.
There is very little dialogue. So many sweet metaphors.
"All the stars like a splash of milk in the sky"

"For when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.

I was a little sad that Nadia and Saeed didn't end up together. 
I was having goosebumps the entire time. 
I feel like giving this book to everyone to read.

Lauren Tabor

*2.5

I guess I didn’t really know what to expect from this going into it. But I found it mostly boring, even though a lot of the time there was a lot happening. I don’t know if I just found the writing full or what, but this didn’t hit me like I thought it would.

Saima A

it was confusing at some parts, but was great

Exit West A Novel

Reviews

Highlights