SHORTLISTED for the Man Booker Prize 2017 - Exit West

It's about love. It's about changing relationships between people, worlds, countries. It's political as a love story must be. It's romantic in the way that the best books about politics must be. It moves carefully and tenderly because Hamid loves his characters and will not short change them or us. It is a sad beautiful book.

A poignant evocative picture of the situations faced by immigrants around the world. I loved the writing. Although the plot line is impressionistic rather than linear, the story was clear. This is not a book for the literal-minded but it is a beautiful book.

Some of the most glorious language that illuminates the essence of the human condition in the most recognizable fashion. A true masterpiece. Should be required reading in today's fractured world. We are all migrants through time.

It was interesting enough to keep reading, hoping there was more but there wasn’t. There is something missing. Too much detail about what doesn’t matter and not enough about the what did. The whole doors thing just feels like trying to put magic in a story where it doesn’t belong.

Amazing thought provoking work. It takes the labels out of the equation and allows you to view the migrant crisis on a human basis. The writing was superb and very insightful, characters were fully developed the good and the bad. The writing style was expressive and imaginative without being distracting truly allowing the reader to walk in another persons shoes

Beautifully written tale of a relationhip. Hamid uses language to form delicious sentence that touch one's heart. I found myself copying passages for future reference. I enjoyed it so much that I must now read his other novels.

I found the book pretentious, and filled with endless description which did not move the plot along. It was a book club choice, and our group definitely felt either overwhelmingly positive or negative, no one was on the fence about it. It wasn't a book I would have chosen. If I wasn't reading it for book club I most likely wouldn't have finished it, which is something I rarely if ever do.

Experience loss and love. Memories and separations. Insight and pathos. A remarkable story for these times. We connect in ways unexpected. We disconnect in ways familiar and heart wrenching. Recommended to those who want real experiences and insight.

This book has been well reviewed by respected publications. I found it very engaging on first reading. The element of suspense was certainly its strongest feature for me, and I felt it reminiscent of some of Franz Kafka’s work. I appreciated being guided through an experience I would have found menacing.

At times the emotions plumbed in this story were almost overwhelming. Beautifully written and hard to put down, in the end, it is a story of humanity and changes it faces today, of love in all its forms, and of fear - loss - and hope.

Again, the Wiki insists that Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid, is a novel about emigration and refugee problems, and it is, but it is also a love story. Love of country. Love of family. Love, because with love comes a longing to connect.

Yes, there are those mysterious doors through which one can “Exit West.” No one in this book need fear death by drowning in overfilled boats. Yes, there is bombing and people, even loved ones, are killed. And yes, there is resentment on the other side of those magical doors. But what keeps this little novel together is love.

Here is main character Saeed, for whom praying becomes more important on the other side of the door than it ever was at home.

"…he prayed fundamentally as a gesture of love for what had gone and would go and could be loved in no other way. When he prayed he touched his parents, who could not otherwise be touched, and he touched a feeling that we are all children who lose our parents, all of us, every man and woman and boy and girl, and we too will all be lost by those who come after us and love us, and this loss unites humanity, unites every human being, the temporary nature of our being-ness, and our shared sorrow, the heartache we each carry and yet too often refuse to acknowledge in one another, and out of this Saeed felt it might be possible, in the face of death, to believe in humanity’s potential for building a better world …"

Exit West is, in some ways, more poem than novel. Two people traveling through a world not of their making learning to love along the way.

A very sophisticated and eloquent account of escape and survival from a magical realistic contemporary apocalypse. A religious man and a less religious woman running from an Islamic city under siege through doors to several other cultural worlds where they become themselves. Fascinating, humane; literally wonderful writing.

This is the story of two well defined characters who experience many trials as they immigrate from their war torn homes in an unnamed country. While it is beautifully written I didn't favor the somewhat sci-fi aspect of the story. However, the author keep me involved enough that I wanted to see what ultimately happened to them. A satisfying ending.

Not at all what I expected, a combination of fairy tale/modern day warning about refugees and immigrants, with the understanding that the vast majority of people in the world are either or both. Quick paced but emotionally complex.

A book initially slow but then turned magical, gives a viewpoint on migrant issues from a first person generalized account, while being less than real to make it less uncomfortable. The ending is slightly anticlimactic but generates thought. Enjoyed!

This is a cogent attempt to portray increasing mobility of people, sometimes by choice but mostly caused by oppression and hardships. And depiction of counter folks and forces against this trend. Some favor using the DOORS as means of welcome while others employ them as barricades!

The story is easy to follow with a multitude of “flavorful” characters. The separation of two lovers left me wishing they would eventually permanently reunite. A realistic story for realistic times. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in humankind.

A very creative, unique, and beautiful story that offers powerful glimpses of, and insights into immigration, love, conflict, understanding, and the human condition. The writing has an interesting style unlike anything I have read before and the prose is thoughtful and poetic. I really enjoyed it!

Beautifully written book with an interesting storyline. This novel is great for book clubs as there is a lot of room for discussion and opinion. Overall an excellent book and I can't wait to read it again.

The style of writing was beautiful. I enjoyed the story. It was raw and real. I did begin to want the story to end towards the last hour of the kindle book just because you could see where the book was heading and I felt it was over.

I was somewhat interested and at the same time felt like they could of cut out half this story and gotten the same result. Found myself trying to will myself to finish it and see what all the hub-bub was about; and as I suspected, was not impressed by the ending.

at the harsh realities of being unwanted as a refugee and the constant struggle to pick up the shards and build again. A magical realistic tale. The idealistic sweetness lingers, the realistic images haunt.

A wonderful story of love under very difficult conditions told through the eyes of people forced to leave home countries. Doors opening and closing, opportunities taken and missed. The difficulties of life as a refugee, but still experiencing all of human desires, fears and joys.

Having read "Exit West" on Kindle, I have almost 25% of the book highlighted! I did not want to part with the beauty of Hamid's words, the emotional connection I had to the story or his brilliant observations of human life. Wonderful!!

Well written. What the characters felt towards the end is so real. The letting go and all. In the brief description it was very precise and you’ll feel how difficult it is to let go and move on and the process and all.

In a prose nearly devoid of dialogue, the author draws the lives of a young couple through the arrival of war and exode, how they adapt to fear and salvation and how in the end this is a story of life. It is a politically important book as it makes migrants knowable and so takes fear and passion out of immigration, without painting people either way in rosy or dark colours.

Characters and ideas, originating from a place without name. The events are contemporary and ageless, the loss of security in location happens in an instant. How will you respond? What door do you open and where will you go?

An amazing parable/novel projecting our lives from the present into the near future with enormous empathy for both main characters, Saeed and Nadia, within an ugly external reality. Clean, simple, un-purple prose. The story's deeply depressing beginning is suddenly penetrated by a magic which allows living re-starts in other parts of the world. No answers to our near future as Earth inhabitants is given, except one: hope remains.

I enjoyed the authors insight into upheaval and the forward motion of life pursuits and the effects of gas on those pursuits. The idea of a magic portal to transport away from hardship to hope, simultaneously stings and intrigues. A door of transportation takes away from the refugees real life struggle of movement, mobility and then stability, but adds, in a novel, a perfect solution to those seeking hope, but as it turns out these doors can be "both like dying and being born"

A good writer carries a reader over many thresholds. This was a smooth journey over rough territory. When you are ready to give up on us human beings, you make this trip and have to think life through. . . again.

I've recommended this novel to many of my friends. It's written very poetically while still describing the conflicts of migrating to new cultures; how our perception of relationships and of the world changes.

I found the book very disappointing after hearing good things about it. I was not impressed with the magical doors. I was not impressed with character development. If this book was mainly about dissolution of a relationship under pressure...that, too, seemed superficial and unrealistic. The only good thing about the book, really, was the length.

Mohsin Hamid is one of the best contemporary writers I have read. The plots are fast paced, characters strong, and his style evokes emotions that make the story linger in your head well after you've finished reading. Highly recommended!

very moving, realistic, multi-dimensional look at life during war time in an unnamed majority Muslim nation paired with surreal passages that bring characters into places where they are refugees. Very interesting juxtapositioning and complex characters. Love this book.

I don't like to read book reviews before finishing a book. Initially, I gave this book 4 stars; but then I saw the author's interview on PBS Newshour, and I got so much more. Also, I know it's a good book when I continue to think about the characters days after I've read it. I loved the ending, by the way.