Exit West: A Novel

I don't understand some of Hamid's writing choices. It's a pretty straightforward narrative but then there are these magical doorways, which might be good if it was a magical book with other magical things. But it's jarring having these weird doorways coming out of nowhere. Also the author seems to sometimes go off in weird directions without any explanations (like the doors but without the magic), leaving some of the narrative a bit headscratching. I'm 3/4 of the way through and having a hard time finishing because of some of these fanciful turns that don't make any kind of real life sense to me.
Exploring themes of migration and xenophobia is where the book is stronger, but the weird turns and inexplicable things like how the migrants end up all living in a house together without anyone caring about it or coming home or trying to get their house back, just defies plausibility.

At once prescient and fantastical, Mohsin Hamid's novel "Exit West" is a modern classic. Hamid's novel grapples with war, extremism, identity, the refugee crisis, and migration. Underlying all this, however, is a love story that spans continents and decades. The story tells of many characters, their lives and relationships, yet is anchored by the lives of Nadia and Saeed, two people who left their war torn homeland together in search of a better life. Hamid's groundbreaking novel possesses an understated humanism, and his words are full of meaning without being overbearing. In all likelihood, "Exit West" would make an excellent film as well.

What I like about the book, is how the author paints a juxtaposition of two realities; that I can be a native and an immigrant in the 21st century.

The author tells the story of a couple who have to navigate this new reality and world, while having to navigate through love , death, anger, friendship and digital age .

If you love geopolitics and follow closely the effect of civil war and the crisis migrants today, this book is the other side of what the mainstream news story don't capture.

The novel started out fairly well, then degenerated into idiocy with the "doors" acting as an unnecessary plot device to cover up the author's laziness. I realize that magical realism is the hottest thing in fiction writing right now, but Hamid is no Marquez. There are also random digressions out of the main characters - if these actually had any relevance to either plot or character development, they would make sense, but as the book stands, they are simply padding so that the author can share his "revelatory" (yet cliched) insights into humanity with the world.

The book begins in Syria, although it isn't named as such. A couple fall in love amid the shambles of the city. There are rumors of doors leading out of the chaos to other places. The couple in question go through one of the doors after paying a great deal of money. During their trips from place to place, settling for a time in London, they grow apart. While in London, masses of refugees join them, some in the same house they wind up in. There are "nativist" riots all over the west against the masses that have made their way out of war torn areas of the world. Over time, the world adjusts, our protagonists go their separate ways, but with no malice. They meet again when they're old to reminisce.

This novel is well told, with interesting characters, including quick snippets of other people's lives during this change in the world.

Sci fi or dystopian novel or imagined refugee experience taken from today's headlines. A couple's flight from an unknown Asian or Middle Eastern country propels the book in the beginning. The lack of specificity ( what country?) and the magical realism device of transport from one city to the next, for me, became repetitious as the relationship between the couple became tiresome. Not Hamid's best.

Mohsin Hamid's novel is brilliant and searching. He writes with such simplicity that those of us used to twitter can easily connect to the style, and then discover those plain words and simple sentences have reached into your bones and blood. He is able to bring tragic, wrenching circumstances that he and his family and friends must have have experienced into words that succeed in bringing at least some sense of those experiences into the physical consciousness of the reader. He teaches us the necessary lesson of what it means to become out of dire necessity to be a stranger in a strange land.

In Mohsin Hamid’s stunning novel EXIT WEST, a couple find each other just as their country falls apart. Following their journey, the reader discovers a world that is changing and becoming porous. A place where refugees struggle against nativism to find new homes. Hamid's novel is deeply imagined and thoroughly compassionate; the language is breathtaking. Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, it is a novel not to be missed.

I am very impressed by the story which felt like a surrealism painting in words. There was so much said in his descriptions of each interaction between people -put into words like nothing I've read before. The transitions happening today of societies with migrations and technology are addressed in a thought provoking way.

This book tells what the other side of mainstream news doesn't when dealing with populations on the move, migration and loss. It is relevant to how we view the innocents desperately trying to save their families fleeing violence and death. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in such frightening, chaotic times.

The parallels between Trumpism and this book are unavoidable. Terrifying.
Refugees from all over the world an find no safe haven until they find.....
Gotta keep that a secret or the book is ruined for readers.
This is a book for today and what is happening in the world and in this
country.

Mohsin Hamid’s EXIT WEST is a lyrical tale of two young people living in an unnamed country in the midst of war. They are falling deeply in love with each other but even the mere act of romance is a challenge beyond measure with guards, fighting, and bombing at every turn. In addition to the customs of their religion, which prevent men and women from being alone together before marriage.

Plotting their escape to a better place, mystical in essence, there are doors to go through, which lead them to another land of promise of a better life. With each new country that they go, life does not necessarily get better for them. They are outcasts, not part of the culture, and is life really better than it was in their homeland. Their relationship now has different obstacles that they must face. We see that life as refugees is a daily struggle not only trying to escape and make a new home in a foreign land, but coping with what they have left behind. What does their future hold and is it worth the price they must pay?

There are so many incredibly prosaic passages in the book that you can’t help but feel like you are reading poetry. The author’s gift for writing necessary long take-your-breath-away sentences are simply magnificent. He captures what this young couple are feeling internally, about each other, their families, and the world around them. Upon making the decision to leave their country and reflecting: “by making the promise he demanded she make she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.” Equally filled with love reflecting upon a symbolic lemon tree: “in a gesture so beautiful that Saeed was filled with love, and reminded of his parents, for whom he suddenly felt such gratitude and a desire for peace, that peace should come for them all, for everyone, for everything, for we are so fragile, and so beautiful, and surely conflicts could be healed if others had experiences like this, and then he regarded Nadia and saw that she was regarding him and her eye were like worlds.”
​
This is a novel but you can’t help but feel like Saeed and Nadia are living amongst us.

Great writing but wanted more from the ending. Plus, many events were surreal & fabricated so readers should be aware some of this never happened in reality though, for the refugee, it might feel like this could've happened.

Such an unusual story. I feel like I need to go back and reread it to fully understand everything. The doors........ This idea was fascinating to me. This book is so relevant to all that is going on in our society with immigration. It gave me a tiny glimpse into the life of immigrants.

This was an unusual take on the path many immigrants take to get out of their war-torn homelands in that they can use certain doors as portals to (usually) safer places. The author did a great job developing the characters and the setting of their un-named, un-safe homeland. I was moved by their decisions and worried for their safety. And while it doesn't solve the immigrant crisis, it did present an interesting idea of what could be done by those countries that are overwhelmed by new arrivals.

Loved doors as a portal of immigration. Disappointed by the use of a distant omniscient voice. The characters changed very little despite multiple migrations. Maybe that was intentional to show how stifled they were but to me, in the end I did not care about them.

This is an excellent, easy read. It shows the plight of migrants, but has just a touch of magical realism to invent a world where borders no longer matter. Very well-written, and has a message about relationships, as well as the world today.

My mistake to buy this book. I don't like books taking a supernatural turn. In addition i found it unbearably dark. It reminded me of the catastrophe films I always refuse to watch. I liked Hamid's previous books so much that I took the risk but it didn't work for me.

An outstanding, insightful book for our times. It is infused with meaning, relevance and a light touch of magical realism - just enough to add a bit of whimsy and intrigue. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the issues of migration that go beyond current headlines.

I expected this book to provide insight on the struggles and challenges encountered by refugees that would leave the reader with a strong sense of compassion for immigrants. Maybe this wasn't Hamid's intention because aside from a few brief descriptions of selling possessions for food and fighting for shelter, this book failed to deliver such a story.

Big miss: The book is written in a third-person narrative, which reads like a history book and fails to connect the reader to the characters. There is zero dialog. If the story had been told in first-person by Nadia or Saeed, or better yet, both, it would have been far more compelling and less boring.

Major flop: There are several chapters that have unrelated story lines that the reader expects to be connected later, but that never happens.

Weird fantasy: The refugees are transported through magical "doors". This is another missed opportunity for Hamid to build the reader's compassion by detailing personal experiences of the danger, uncertainty, and fear that is experienced by the characters.

I heard Mohsin Hamid speak about this novel on NPR and both the subject and the premise intrigued me. The authors beautiful writing style grabbed me in the first chapter. Then that premise and subject matter (homeland conflict,migrants, immigration,and magic doors) just kept the pages turning. I thoroughly enjoyed the three main characters Saeed, Nadia and Saeed's father. The journey depicted was so personal that the reader feels privileged to share if not somewhat voyeuristic. The "doors" created a novel perspective as does the apocalyptic undertones. Great read!

This was very promising from the reviews I had read but it did not do much for me. Yes, it is very relevant and topical in so far as the plight of refugees and the struggle of dislocation and identity was portrayed. I also loved the almost sci-fi element of doors to other lands brining hope - it was a bit like the Lion, Which and the Wardrobe or the Subtle Knife cutting windows in to new worlds.
However, the writing style of page long sentences, punctuated but a few odd commas - and the switching from one scene to another by stating (usually in the same unbroken sentence) "meanwhile in another land....". It breaks all the laws of writing and it detracts from the story and its readability.
I am genuinely surprised this work has received so many positive reviews.

The story follows a couple, whose relationship is told very tenderly, but I moreso enjoyed the thought provoking element of how cities and communities would change if refugee crises continue and masses of people migrate around the world.

Thoughtful and interesting treatment of the impact of human beings realigning themselves into new tribes as war and ideology tear apart their old communities. I read it at the same time as The Hillbilly Elegy and found myself more sympathetic to the plight of the Exit West characters than J.D. Vance, who, despite a tough family, did have people looking out for him.

It's not as good as How to Get Rich in Rising Asia, let alone The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Exist West was completely dry and emotionless, but sometimes poignantly true. Not in a touching way like in Rising Asia, but in the way that makes you think I suppose.

Hamid is obviously a good writer. Really, had he taken some extra time to work on this book, it could've been much better. I just think the "sometimes true" isn't good enough to carry the book to a 4 star rating. It had its moments, but it was largely boring. Wish I could give this a 3.5/5.

The story is beautifully written and touches on the human tragedy that is our world. I wouldn’t call this science fiction at all but a study in how circumstances can drastically alter two peoples lives. A pleasant read.

Bittersweet novel about a couple forced to leave everything they love behind in their country because of a civil war. And there struggles adapting to new countries. Might be one of the best novels of 2017

Addressing a global issue, this novel provides an insightful view into refugees/migrants' minds. Bottom line: this is a must-read for anyone who is interested in contemporary issues like refugees' influx.

It’s disappointing when a short novel feels interminable. The author make a reasonable literary attempt to demonstrate the opposite of the writing workshop adage: ”show don’t tell.” Exit West involves almost all telling and very little showing, as we follow a young refugee couple from their unnamed embattled homeland through magic doors--yes, magic doors--that take them to various partial sanctuaries in an unspecified future. If this sounds abstract, it is. The novel’s lyrical prose rarely engages in concrete detail or memorable specificity but prefers a sort of allegorical universality propped up here and there by portentous reflections on time and space and human relationships. There’s nothing wrong with this literary decision except I was hoping to read an engrossing novel that would bring to life the ordeals of the current refugee crisis in a dramatic narrative form, with characters who are individuals living in real places and coping with real obstacles. Obviously, this was not the author’s intention.

In Exit West sentences are paragraph-long, but the plot is negligible. A man and a woman flee from one world to another through doors, not quite sure what they are looking for and occupying themselves with meaningless conversations and pursuits in between. The characters are flat, and so is the writing, generous on "tell" but not "show" and abound with awkward phrases (e.g., "...a few paper-wrapped sticks of unchewed chewing gum.") Trying to ascribe depth to this primitive politically correct story would require more effort than rolling out and wrapping a chewed chewing gum.

I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist several years ago and it seemed well intentioned and generally well written, but awkwardly constructed, so conscious, as it were, of its own message and meaning. So I was curious and interested in his newest release. I wanted to see if he had decided to take the gloves off and let the story's meaning find its own center.
And wow! A beautiful and provocative story emerges from these pages, one that forces any self aware reader to ponder the meaning of displacement, of belonging, of love - even of nation-states and their necessity, and he does it all, gently but firmly as he follows the lives of Saeed and Nadia, two young adults who fall at least a little bit in love while war breaks out in their (unnamed) home country and wind up foraging not only for their existences but for their lives.
Hamid's ability to knit a bit of magical realism in even as reality becomes increasingly gritty and grim was what delighted me most. It was unexpected, and yet absolutely necessary to the development of the narrative (or was it?). The main characters come to life sturdily beneath Hamid's hand, and his settings and situations are eminently believable.
My only reservation is that he leaves far more questions behind than he does answers - although that may be just me wishing to have a nice, deep conversation about this book over a cup of coffee.
A beautiful and terrible world lives within these pages, and it deserves to be widely read.

It was obscure. I felt the author was trying to be chic in throwing in some same-sex situations.
The doors thing was interesting but you really had to suspend disbelief when this couple seemed to live on practically nothing yet survived.

It was definitely slanted towards migrants and against nativists but that is the author's perogative.

It was apocalyptic yet the ending left the reader wondering....whaaaa??

It was a love-hate novel for me.

I bought the book after hearing the very positive review on NPR but was very disappointed. The idea is creative and the storyline holds a lot of potential, but overall the novel is undeveloped and falls short. Some of the writing is very nice and insightful, it is unfortunate that this quality wasn't more consistent or that the characters/story weren't better developed.

I will try to write this without spoilers.

This book was wonderful and I marvel at Ward’s command of characterizations. JoJo and his sister are like two halves of a whole...while he negotiates the bewildering forest of what it means to be a man, his baby sister careens about in the realm of (even feminine?) instincts informed. There is a sad naïveté to Leonie, their mother, and how Ward was able to convey her as a sympathetic character (which she does, as well, with JoJo’s father, Michael) seems miraculous to me.

As Faulkner so aptly put it, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” This is a novel that embodies everything that implies.

Most literary critics, and the people who hand out the Booker Prize, tend to be a reliable source of books I won't like. So I should have been paying more attention when I picked up Exit West by the award-winning British-Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid. This book is a poor excuse for a novel.

At the outset, Exit West appears to be the tale of Nadia and Saeed, two middle-class young adults in Syria or Iraq who fall in love as the city they live in (Damascus? Aleppo? Baghdad? Mosul?) comes under attack from "militants" and soon falls to them. The promise Hamid sets up in these early chapters is that we'll learn about the experience of becoming a refugee and adjusting to life in a new country. But that's not what Hamid delivers. Instead, his tale veers off into silliness.

Using the clumsy metaphor of doors that open onto new lives, Hamid whisks Nadia and Saeed through a black door somewhere in their beleaguered city—and, miraculously, they find themselves on a sunny beach on the island of Mykonos, Greece. With this one swift diversion, Hamid has bypassed what has become one of the signature experiences of Middle Eastern refugees: the grueling and perilous journey from their native country to one of the gateways to Europe. Then he does it again, and again, and again. Several doors later, after a lengthy stay in an unrecognizable version of London, where "millions" of refugees have gathered and come under attack by nativist gangs and the British Army, they move on again, through another black door. The couple then end up in a shack on a mountaintop in Marin County, California, never having set foot in a car or on a ship, a railroad, or an airplane. Oh, and Native American traders show up nearby in Marin! (If you're ever in Marin County, I strongly suspect you'll have a hard time finding Native Americans of any occupation. However, there is a Native American Museum there.)

To compound the confusion, the story of Nadia and Saeed is unaccountably interrupted with pointless scenes involving people they never meet in cities they never visit: San Diego, Amsterdam, Marrakesh, Tijuana, and others. There is no discernible reason for these scenes, other than to make this slim volume just ever so slightly thicker.

Were Hamid's style compelling, I might be inclined to forgive some of these blunders. But it's not. Run-on sentences, some of them a page long or longer, interrupt the flow of the story.

Perhaps Mohsin Hamid was simply not the right person to write a novel about refugees. After all, though he was born in Lahore, Pakistan, he spent much of his childhood in the United States; his father was a university professor who was studying for a Ph.D. at Stanford. Hamid returned to the U.S. at age 18 to study at Princeton and Harvard Law School. This isn't exactly the profile of a Middle Eastern refugee, is it?

Mohsin Hamid writes with clean, spare prose, narrating the story of Saeed and Nadia who fall in love in an unnamed Middle Eastern country and escape as their country descends into violence. EXIT WEST follows its protagonists on the route taken by many refugees: from the Middle East to the Greek islands, to London, to the United States. It is a harrowing journey, strewn with perils, and yet in the middle of the excruciating life of a migrant, Hamid draws our attention to moments of extraordinary beauty. EXIT WEST not only gives Western readers a peek into refugee life, it poignantly reminds us that migrant people are human beings, with the sorts of hopes and longings that are common to us all.

I don’t do book recommendations. I support writer friends by raising the flag for their books. I’ll jump on the accolade train for personal favorites like Max Allan Collins, Algren, McMurtry, McDonald, William Krueger or Brian Freeman. Once a year I send my brother a list of what I liked because I know we like the same things. But I’ve always been hesitant to say to the world in general: “Read this! It’s a story that will help make the world a better place!”

But reading Exit West by Mohsin Hamid changed my mind. Because this is a story that matters. To all of us.

It’s a story of love set in a time of massive migration of refugees, famine, and war torn horror. (Sound familiar?) And whether you are a person who deals with the pain of the millions who have no home by building a wall so they won’t get what you have; or a person who feels those cries of the wandering millions in your very bones, or any combination of both fear and sorrow; reading this book will help.

Because what this world class writer does is what every great writer has done since Cervantes scrawled out Don Quixote, he puts the reader deep in the story. And by showing the pain, the fear and even the hope, he offers up a way for all of us to share that unnamable connection that makes us all human.

With a touch of magic, with writing so clear it shimmers like crystal and with a shared dose of our common humanity, this is a book that will be around forever.

And if you read it, you’ll know why.

"Perhaps they had grasped that the doors could not be closed, and new doors would continue to open, and they had understood that the denial of coexistence would have required one party to cease to exist, and the extinquishing party too would have been transformed in the process, and too many native parents would not after have been able to look their children in the eye, to speak with head held high of what their generation had done." - Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

I have so many thoughts about Exit West by Mohsin Hamid but, I am not sure how to express them all. I am not even sure that I can express them coherently. This is not a long book but it doesn't need to be to make a profound statement about the world that we live in. Part love story, part melancholy of a war-torn world, and part surrealism, this story will carry the reader through a rainbow of emotions before the end.

The story begins in an unnamed country ravaged by war where sweet Saeed and Fiercely independent Nadia meet and fall in love. However, their relationship moves to a new level of intimacy when Nadia moves in with Saeed's family. The country is no longer safe for women alone. Soon, the couple hear about doors that can transport you out of one country and instantly to another, safer place. They endeavor to find a door and leave to country together.

The story follows Saeed and Nadia as the move from country to country in search of a safe place to start their future together. The book's emotional journey was incredibly vivid. I felt the pain of leaving family with the poignant words "When we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind." (Mohsin Hamid). I also felt the pain of the love lost between Nadia and Saeed. The "what ifs" and the unknown forever following them. Perhaps it was the all too real glimpse of what our world can become, that left me loving and hating the book at the same time. The real doors in this story are those that provide the glimpses into ourselves and the reality we may not want to see.

I usually only write a review of a novel if I loved it or hated it and unfortunately in this case it was the latter. After reading so many positive reviews for this novel and the fact that it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, I figured it would be a great read. Let me tell you- I could not have been more disappointed. In the first 50 pages I was intrigued enough to continue, despite the ENDLESS run-on sentences, streams of consciousness, and repetition. By page 100, I was irritated. By 200, I could barely read through a single sentence (which all tend to be an entire page long) without wanting to roll my eyes and throw the book across the room. I understood the "deeper message" the author was attempting to convey with the idea of these secret "doors" and the "we are all migrants through time" stuff, but this was just ridiculous. I went into this thinking there would be some great insight or wisdom about the current worldwide refugee crisis and the ideas of the global south and the global north, but there was nothing. As for the characters themselves, I don't need to like a main character to read a book, but in this case no one was even remotely likable or interesting. Despite the fact the reader is on this "journey" with these two insufferable protagonists, I knew nothing worthwhile about them and frankly I didn't want to and in the end I could not have cared less about what happened to them. Perhaps had the author's writing style been different, perhaps if there had been fewer stream of consciousness run-on sentences, the book would have been more tolerable. But there were already so many negatives in terms of plot and then for the writing style to be what it was? Yikes. I forced myself to finish, thinking maybe there was some grand finale that would make it all worth it but there wasn't. What a disappointing read.

After read other reviews, I bought the book with great anticipation. I find the writing style to be strange with a wandering sentences covering more than a page. The whole literary structure is hard to follow, as if written by a teenager. This writing style detracts from what could otherwise be an important message on upheaval in an uncertain world.

I don't give up on a lot of books, but I gave up on this one, because the writing style is exhausting. Consider this typical sentence:

On the street, the day before Nadia's shrooms arrived, there was a burly man at the red light of a deserted late-night intersection who turned to Nadia and greeted her, and when she ignored him, began to swear at her, saying only a whore would drive a motorcycle, didn't she know it was obscene for a woman to straddle a bike in that way, had she ever seen anyone else doing it, who did she think she was, and swearing with such ferocity that she thought he might attack her, as she stood her ground, looking at him, visor down, heart pounding, but with her grip firm on clutch and throttle, her hands ready to speed her away, surely faster than he could follow on his tired-looking scooter, until he shook his head and drove off with a shout, a sort of strangled scream, a sound that could have been rage, or equally could have been anguish.

Now, I like that kind of stream-of-consciousness in its place. But the whole book seems to be written this way (well, the first 20%, anyway) and I just didn't enjoy it.

From start to finish, the book reads like the rehearsed voice of a news reporter. It's as if the author is telling you the story in real-time with little backstory or context.

You do your best to weave the story together with the pieces you have, with what's happening right now, but without details of the past, the whys, and the hows. As a result, there are holes in the story! But that's okay because you quickly realize that what's missing isn't essential to the story. This could be anybody's story—not just that of Nadia and Saeed.

This is a universal story is about people surviving whatever life throws at them. Who the people are, where the story happens, and even why the events occur are immaterial. The story is about life requiring—no, demanding—that at every turn we make a choice and then face the consequences of those choices. Hence the need for a detached reporter-like voice at every scene merely telling the reader what the choices are, which one the character chooses, and what happens as a result of the choice.

But every now and then, the matter-of-fact voice is broken by profound and painful truths. Here's an example:

“That is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”

As the story progresses, I found the authors's voice grow tired and cold, like someone who has given up on possibilities. The change is so gradual that you almost forget that this is fiction, that Mohsin Hamid has complete control over the characters, the story, and even the ending. Instead you feel like the author has no choice in the storytelling because it is truth.

The storytelling is simply masterful.

Besides his superb storytelling, Hamid's treatment of themes in the book—such as the plight of refugees—is raw with universal relevance. The story begins with Nadia losing her family for her independence, and that pattern of losing something to gain something else continues to the end.

"There was no good option for either of them. There was risk to each."

Hamid's treatment of life and death is clinical and also matter-of-fact. In the world of Nadia and Saeed, the possibility of death coming through a window is just as likely as death by cancer. Life is really the cancer, the death

Most all reviews of the book include the symbolism of doors. So I'm obliged to include it as well. Everything about the doors represents the uncertainty of life—from the blackness of the door to the fact that there's nothing on the outside of the door to clue you into to what's on the other side. There are no guarantees. Not knowing tomorrow from today makes life simultaneously feel like the beginning and the end. To pass from one moment to another is like both like dying and being born.

The book's philosophical solution to the inevitability of uncertainty is this: With every new beginning, there is loss—and with that loss, you often lose a part of yourself. And if you're not willing to fill that void with something else, discontentment brews.

This is a novel that grabs your heart and does not let go. I devoured it in one sitting last night. As we see all these news stories, for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to leave a dying father, to leave your home and job - how bad things have to get in your own home city or country, as so many millions today are facing (including undocumented immigrants in the US at this moment)- this incredibly powerful novel tells of two young lovers as their city crumbles around them and they have to decide whether to give up everything and leave. A total page-turner, and just incredibly timely - everyone should read this book.

Mohsin Hamid is an elegant and courageous writer and in this, his fourth book, he writes a novel that is as ambitious and profound as it is timely.

The book begins in an unknown country filled with strife – think Syria, although it could really be any country. Two young people – Nadia and Saeed – fall in love and immediately, Mr. Hamid begins to dispel stereotypes. At first glance, it is Saeed that is most contemporary – after all, Nadia wears a burka. But quickly, we find out that she also drives a motorcycle, enjoys psychedelic mushrooms, and in fact, is far more into consummating the relationship than Saeed, who wants to wait ‘til marriage.

As their relationship develops, Mr. Hamid takes great pains to make these two characters likeable and relatable, with their dependence on social media, their risk-taking to advance their relationship, their universal feelings. Once we – as readers – understand and relate to them, in a daring authorial move, they begin to lose their individuality and become avatars-of-sorts. They could be anyone. They could be us.

Throughout their unnamed land, which is becoming more and more dangerous, magical doors begin to appear…doors that can transport people away. Saeed and Nadia have no choice but to enter these doors, leaving their homeland behind. It is their lot to become citizens of nowhere, and citizens of everywhere.

And herein lies the “meat” of the novel – all of us are migrants, in one way or another, through time and space. Mr. Hamid writes, “…for people bought and sold houses the way they bought and sold stocks, and every year someone was moving out and someone was moving in, and now all these doors from who knows where were opening, and all sorts of strange people were around…”

In today’s current xenophobic times, the message that Mohsin Hamid imparts may seem wishful. It veers from being a dystopia to presenting a message of hope and redemption, relaying how the migrants’ journey is the journey that all of us take, one way or the other. This is a book for our time, and maybe for all time.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin for offering me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
This is another one of the books longlisted for the Man-Booker Prize (now I only have one left of the ones I discovered sitting on my list. I might even finish reading it before the short-list is announced, I believe on the 13th of September). In this case, like in a few of the previous ones, although the author, Mohsin Hamid, is fairly well-known, this is the first of his books I read. Some of the reviews compare it to his previous books, especially to The Reluctant Fundamentalist (I don’t know about the book, but I love the title, for sure), but I can’t comment on that. I can tell you that having read this book, I am curious to read more of his works.
This is another fairly peculiar book. Let me tell you beforehand that I really enjoyed it. Like many of the other books selected, the author seems to go out of his way to ignore most of the rules that those of us who read articles and books on writing are so familiar with. He tells a fair bit more than he shows (although there are some bits of showing that make up for it), he uses run-on sentences and paragraphs that sometimes go on and on (if you read it as an e-book, full pages). The punctuation of the said paragraphs is ‘alternative’ at best (quite a few reviewers have taken issue with the use of commas). And the genre is not well-defined.
The novel seemingly starts as a love story between two young characters, Nadia and Saeed, who live in an undetermined Middle-Eastern country. He is shyer, more serious, and has certain religious beliefs (although he is not obsessed or particularly orthodox). She wears a long, black robe, possibly as a protection (although her explanation of it varies throughout the story) but never prays. He comes from a happy and learned family; hers was well-off but not particularly supportive. They meet at a time when the political situation of their country is getting complicated, they almost lose each other and eventually, due to a tragedy, end up together, but never formally so. At some point, life becomes so precarious and dangerous that they decide they must leave.
The story, told in the third-person, that most of the time shares the point of view of one of the two protagonists (and briefly that of Saeed’s father), at times becomes omniscient, interspersing short interludes, which sometimes are full stories and sometimes merely vignettes, of characters that appear extraneous to the story. (And they are, although perhaps not).
The story up to that point, apart from these strange interludes, appears fairly realistic, if somewhat general (no specifics are shared about the country, and the narration is mostly circumscribed to the everyday experiences of the characters). Then, the characters start to hear rumours about some ‘doors’ that allow those who cross them to arrive at a different country. There is no explanation for this. It simply is. Is this fantasy, science-fiction (but as I said, there is no scientific explanation or otherwise, although the setting appears to be an alternative future, but very similar to our present. Extremely similar), or perhaps, in my opinion, a touch of magic realism?
People start migrating en masse, using the doors, most to remove themselves from dangerous situations, and despite attempts from the richest nations to control it, more and more doors are appearing and more and more people are going through them, and that changes everything. Many of the western nations end up full of people from other places, squatting in empty houses (like the protagonists do in London, Chelsea and Kensington to be precise), setting up camps, and the political situation worsens, with confrontations between the natives and the new arrivals, before a sort of equilibrium is reached. The two main characters move several times, and their relationship develops and changes too. (I am not sure I could share true spoilers, but I’d leave it to you to decide if you want to read it or not, rather than tell you the whole story).
The book deals with a subject that is very relevant, although it has been criticised for using the allegory of the doors to avoid discussing and describing one of the most harrowing (sometimes lethal) aspects of the experience of illegal immigrants, the passage. Nonetheless, this novel sets up a fascinating hypothetical situation, where there are no true barriers to the movement of people between countries and where all frontiers have effectively disappeared. What would actually happen if people were not waiting outside to come in, waiting for governments to decide what to do with them, but suddenly found a back door, and were here, there, and everywhere? What if they refused to leave? What would happen then?
I enjoyed some of the interspersed stories, some magical, some of discovering amazing possibilities, some nostalgic. I also loved the language and some of the more generalised reflections about life, people, and identity (like the different groups of people who claimed to being ‘native’ in the USA, for example). We observe the characters from a certain distance at times, but we are also allowed to peek into their inner thoughts and experiences at other times. Although we might not have much in common with either of them, we can easily relate to them and put ourselves in their shoes. We don’t get to know much about some of the other characters, but there is enough for the readers to imagine the rest and fill in the gaps.
The book meanders and at times seems to stay still, just observing the new normality, as if it was trying to tell us that life, even in the most extreme circumstances, is made of the small everyday things. A few quotations from the book:
Nadia had taken one look at Saeed’s father and felt him like a father, for he was so gentle, and evoked in her a protective caring, as if for one’s own child, or for a puppy, or for a beautiful memory one knows has already commenced to fade.
Every time a couple moves they begin, if their attention is still drawn to one another, to see each other differently, for personalities are not a single immutable colour, like white or blue, but rather illuminated screens, and the shades we reflect depend much on what is around us.
…and when she went out it seemed to her that she too had migrated, that everyone migrates, even if we stay in the same houses our whole lives, because we can’t help it. We are all migrants through time.
…the apocalypse appeared to have arrived and yet it was not apocalyptic, which is to say that while the changes were jarring they were not the end, and life went on, and people found things to do and ways to be and people to be with, and plausible desirable futures began to emerge, unimaginable previously, but not unimaginable now, and the result was something not unlike relief.

This is a book that questions notions of identity, beliefs, nationhood, family, community, race… It is dark at times, full of light at others, sad sometimes, and sometimes funny, and it is hopeful and perhaps even utopic (not something very common these days). I am not sure everybody would define the ending as happy (definitely is not the HEA romance novels have us accustomed to) but perhaps we need to challenge our imagination a bit more than traditional storytelling allows.
This is another novel that is not for everybody but perhaps everybody should read. If you are prepared to cross the door of possibility you might be amazed by what you find on the other side.

The best parts of this book, for me, were when the writer hit upon universal truths in a poetic way. Some of his sentences contain insightful, beautiful truths. However, the majority of the writing is lazy. By the end of the book, I was tired of one-page paragraphs full of commas. There's a reason why we're taught not to write this way: it's confusing. It distracts you from the content. My biggest criticism of this book, though, is that I felt like the author was trying to shove an agenda down my throat—making issues very black and white, when reality is usually a spectrum of hues. This is perhaps because it lacks humility and true empathy for all people.

2.3 stars.

This will be a quick review. Before I begin, though, I want to say that I don't think this is a bad book. It was nominated for a Manbooker 2017 prize, and I can definitely see why. However, it wasn't the book for me.

I personally felt that reading the book felt like looking at an artist's sketch. You can clearly see the talent. But it just feels incomplete. I felt that with maybe 100 or so more pages, the novel could've been truly amazing. In my eyes, we only got snapshots of the two protagonists, their situation, the doors, etc. The writing was very blunt in my opinion. Very detached. And upon reflection, it works. In a paradoxical way, it makes you as the reader more connected with the two protagonists.

Essentially, I think this is definitely a novel worth reading. It just didn't connect with me, personally.

This novel simply operates on another plane. Mohsin Hamid’s urgent, elegant EXIT WEST manages to be both timely and timeless: a fierce indictment and a subtle literary masterpiece.

EXIT WEST illuminates the rise of militarized dissent and the dissolution of a country in tandem with the gentle ebb and flow of the love of one couple. Nadia and Saeed live in a country that remains unnamed, but is clearly in the Middle East, close to current day. Hamid does this beautifully and expertly throughout: leaving so much subtle and nameless, but infusing it with such recognizable truth that readers fill in the blanks, draw their own conclusions, and experience the scope of its profundity.

In Saeed and Nadia’s hometown, tensions are rising, as militants and tradition clash with daily life --- yet Hamid emphasizes that within poverty and strife, these are human beings in the 21st century. There are no savages here, except those who have been created by circumstance and hate. Nadia browses social media on her smartphone and rides a motorcycle while beneath her veil; they use a pot delivery service and ingest psychedelic mushrooms at the conclusion of an early date. He is more reserved and wants to see himself as a certain, gentle, stable man. She knows what it means to protect herself. They fit together almost uneasily, bonded by genuine affection and common ground despite being conscious that times of severe stress can cause companionship to feel something like love.

As tensions mount aggressively higher and tragedy becomes no longer a distant thing, Saeed and Nadia begin to hear rumors of doors. Hamid evokes these doors in a manner resonant with Colson Whitehead’s innovative railroad. Rather than mess with the jagged details of migration, Hamid’s doors appear quietly, permit you through for a price and a promise of secrecy, then spit you out somewhere you can only pray is safer than from where you came. You can never know where the next door will appear. You can never know where it will take you. You can never return through the same door.

As Nadia and Saeed venture through door after door, carrying nearly nothing except each other, their journey leads them to new experiences and new understandings of who they are. Meanwhile, around the world, Hamid hints at the narratives of other migrants and refugees who have taken steps through similar doors. Though this story belongs to Saeed and Nadia, it is never only theirs, and the others exist simultaneously, no two the same.

Hamid’s sentences are as delicately strung and precious as pearls, as sharp, bright and fraught as the stars --- an interest of both Nadia and Saeed, at least in times when they have a moment to consider them. Hamid’s voice is muted but charged, rendering this a significantly unique read. He evokes character so clearly and pointedly with only a few words, weaving desire, queerness, poverty and identity through his narrative, that the result is a collection of characters and motivations that constantly feel authentic and current, even though their experiences may be foreign to his more privileged readers, like many of us.

Hamid gives voice to refugees, recognizing them before they had to seek refuge and almost never naming them as such. He breathes exquisite life into what, in many ways, has been reduced to “a contentious issue,” and to call the result heartbreaking and moving feels almost trite. EXIT WEST is an authentic story of identity, placelessness, love and loss, and is undoubtedly a timeless must read.

Reviewed by Maya Gittelman

The first half of Exit West is superb, and richly deserves the many accolades it has received. The understated writing packs so much insight and understanding into what is going on in his characters’ lives as their city disintegrates around them and their relationship develops that you find yourself nodding in recognition and appreciation. All the more disappointing, then, that instead of bringing the same depth and realism to their experience of exile, Hamid resorts to a fabulist magical realism that diminishes rather than enhances the story. Some of the earlier texture remains, and reemerges in the beautiful and touching ending, but it could have been so much more… Still, this is a book that I won’t forget, and underscores the human stories behind the refugees in our midst.

Writing: 5+ Characters: 4 Plot: 4
#powerful #omniscient-first-person

A brilliant, insightful, distillation of the experience of two individuals who go from a life which appears “normal” to one of upheaval, exposure to extremism, and displacement. This is the story of Nadia and Saaed - two people who meet and become a couple as civil war first threatens and then engulfs the city in which they live. As they leave their country and become migrant refugees, we watch the evolution of their relationship with themselves and each other through the eyes of the omniscient (and prescient) narrator.

There are touches of parable where “magic” doors to other locales open, are guarded, or are destroyed - a nice abstraction of the diverse processes people use to enter the “doorways” into other countries, both welcoming and not. We never learn the name of the city or country in which they start - we don’t need to - this is an allegory for all such journeys. Nor do we ever learn the names of any other characters. They are referenced solely by labels that relate them to Saeed and Nadia: “Saeed’s father”, “a musician”, “the girl on Mykonos”. In this way we are forced to focus on these events solely from the perceptions of and impact on these individuals.

The writing is some of the best I’ve seen - one of those books in which each sentence is a gem, both in terms of beauty and pithy insight into human nature and behavior. While the story and environs are clearly disturbing, the prose is neither incendiary nor manipulative, providing a simple, yet detailed documentation of how these experiences shape Nadia, Saeed, and the relationship between them. In this way it reminded me of Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz” which, as its name suggests, is about how people survive, not about the horrors inflicted on them.

I found my stereotypes challenged constantly in loud, messy and surprising ways. I watched assumptions I didn’t know I had disappear as I read. Most of our exposure to situations like this are through news services that focus on major, traumatic events - while this story let me connect to people I could identify with while they adaptated to unplanned and unpleasant circumstances. A mind-twisting (for me) example: Saeed’s father thinks he was selfish to pursue a life of teaching, research, and altruism as he would have been in a position to help his family to escape if he had pursued only wealth. I have never had to think about the acquisition of wealth from that perspective.

This book has all the characteristics I crave in reading: excellent writing, deep character insight, penetrating commentary of the nature of humanity, and relevant subject matter (also NOT depressing). Top recommendation!

Some of us, especially teachers, love to see and often use symbols for global friendship. It might be hands of different skin tones or children dressed in traditional dress making a circle around the globe. Realistically, these symbols are optimistic dreams in a world of conflict where migration is about staying alive. Mohsin Hamid's newest novel, Exit West, uniquely explores the refugee experience with two young characters, Saeed and Nadia. The young couple live in an unnamed country in the Middle East and gravitate to each other in a night class to form a friendship that evolves into romance.
Nadia is an independent woman who moved out of her family home, an action that separated her from her family forever. Saeed lives at home with his mother and father where religion is a source of conflict. Saeed's mother is deeply religious, and his father is secular, a man who enjoys drinking. The marital strife in Saeed's home is a metaphor for the national crisis in many countries. The situation in their country turns deadly violent, and after much deliberation, Nadia and Saeed decide to leave.
The story of the couple's migration brings in an artistic element of metaphorical entry points to various places in the world. Saeed ponders the idea that someday, perhaps in the near or distant future, humans will evolve into one tribe and we will move freely to anyplace that appeals to us. I am with the author in this dream that might serve to save this planet in the future. Exit West is a "best of 2017" on my booklist. I admire the writing skill and the ideas MH presents in this new novel that comes to us at exactly the right time.

I really disliked this book!!! So much so that I never finished it!!! Going tyhrough a door and ending up somewhere else, ridiculous!!!! Totally unbelievable and I didn’t care to go on the journey!!!!

For a small book, Exit West packs a punch. I found that it was more of a love story, a progression of two people's lives through an ever-escalating attack by militant's (no doubt ISIS) takeover of their and others' countries. There is symbolism here- a black door is safe migration. While I felt for the two emigrant's plight, I found it rather unfair of the author to portray the legal residents of London as harboring such hatred as to wish to murder them. Also, the refugees just squatted in and on private property ( which the author presents as the refugee's right.) Millions of refugees shifting from their home countries will destabilize the world. We owe ourselves the dignity of fighting to take back our homes, not fleeing from country to country.. It must be lovely to dream of a world without laws, rules, leaders and economy. But it is unsustainable, and dangerous. Beware. If we give ground to ISIS in one country, then another and another, it is the same as Neville Chamberlain allowing Nazi Germany to invade country after country until we are all enslaved.

Exit West
4.0 stars

What I thought I was going to be reading:
I picked this book as my March Book of the Month selection. I did not know much about the premise of the book, but had heard that the author’s writing was beautiful.

What I actually read:
The story follows two characters living in a war-torn country who become romantically involved. The characters discover that there are opportunities to move through magical doorways to transport to another random part of the world. The story doesn't focus on the magical aspects, however. The story focuses on their relationship with each other and their attempt to make an unstable home a home.

What you should expect:
Expect a quick read with beautiful writing. There is not a lot of action in the novel, despite it being about a war-torn country with magical doors to other places... There also is not a lot of character development in terms of fleshing out characters and understanding their histories. The novel really is a sketch of and commentary on immigrants and the idea of immigration as a deceptively universal experience. (The writing reminded me of watercolor painting, in that a picture was being painted but the lines weren't definitive and the colors blurred.)

I would've rated this two stars but The sentence structure in the book is amazing and needs to be acknowledged! I found myself wanting to highlight sections just because the sentences were beautifully complex.

I love how Exit West portrays the characters in a way that makes them human. They're complicated, messy, and sexual. (Just a note: the author does a great job not going into a lot of detail about their sexual encounters and desires). I also like how the author illustrated the changes that can naturally occur in a person and their relationships when experiencing high stress.

I like how Nadia and Saeed's country was explained in raw detail and the changes that occurred after the coup.

What I didn't like:

This is (what I believe) a very very romantic view of the experience of a refugee. To be able to secure passage so many times to so many different countries, not getting sick, and not getting separated just seems unrealistic.

There were zero details about their actual travels. One second they're here, the next second they're there.

There were random sections written about other places and people who's significance I still haven't figure out.

The author could've ended with Nadia and Saeed losing touch with each other. But instead, they meet back up in the future.....and there was zero mentioned about their lives up until that point. Why have them meet in the future if you're not going to give any details? It just wasn't needed if details were going to be left out.

Overall:
It's a decent book but not one I would suggest to anyone unless they're trying to write their own book and need to see some awesome sentence structure.

I have read Moth Smoke and the Reluctant Fundamentalist and liked the author's narrative style. This book is too dystopian, the characters are not well developed so you don't really feel what they go through; it is a shame because the subject of the book is totally relevant to today's migration crisis.

Terrible, waste of time book to read! This author is supposed to be so good, but he missed it with this attempt. Very confusing and goes nowhere in the narrative and has abrupt ending that really ties nothing together. I think he was trying to make a liberal political statement that had little substance. Find something better to read!

In a time of so many incredible books, it is quite rare that I turn to the final page and find myself longing to begin the story again.

When reflecting on the "why" behind my love of certain books, I usually lean on one of three pillars: a) its innovation/imagination, b) the resonance of its characters, or c) the importance and universality of its ideas.

Check. Check. Check. I cannot conceive a more important or enjoyable story for today's world.

The writing is mesmerizing, leaving me hanging on its sentences out of pure aesthetic appreciation. The plot undertaken by the two main characters feels authentic even in the imagination of the book, yet the interludes of other one-act characters carry just as much weight. This is a story about the past as much as the present as much as the future, and one that I am only sorry it took this long to stumble across.

A young couple falls in love in an undesignated Middle Eastern country, but when violence flares out of control they are forced to flee. The novel follows this couple as they cross through various “doorways,” moving from one country to the next, trying to find someplace where they can settle into a peaceful life.

What makes this love story so intriguing is its exploration of the varied ways in which individuals cope with the challenges of refugee life. The male lead, Saeed, is close to his parents, who are professionals, at the beginning of the story. He’s been raised in a middle-class devout but moderate Muslim household. Saeed seeks out his own people and takes solace not only in Islam, but in the culture of his countrymen more generally. His girlfriend, Nadia, is on the outs with her family because she moved out on her own and she was too modern and progressive for the tastes of her traditional family. She’s a non-believer, and the religion and culture with which she was raised are objects she is more than willing to put in her rearview mirror. (To make it interesting, Nadia wears the burka, not because she is devout, but because it’s somewhat successful at keeping the guys from pawing her. This makes her appear devout, when she is anything but.) Nadia tries to assimilate into whatever community she finds herself. What begins as a comfortable “opposites attract” set of differences becomes an ever-widening chasm as the two are exposed to the stresses of refugee life.

This book is written in a sparse style. It does a lot of telling versus showing. However, that seems to work because some of what it does show the reader is so visceral that some straight-forward exposition of the character’s feelings forms a palate cleanser. The story is specifically vague about how the characters move from place to place. This is clearly on purpose to capture the nature of refugee travel, which is so different from the looking out windows and snapping photos that ordinary travelers do. It also allows the author to portray the refugee routes as portals that open and close on different locales as authorities on either end shut them down. They aren’t the firmly established transportation corridors ordinary travelers move through, but rather ephemeral windows of opportunity.

There are little vignettes about individuals apparently unrelated to the story in each chapter. Through them, I think the author just wishes to convey the global nature of this phenomenon. I didn’t find these bits added much, but the also didn’t take up much space or time, and so didn’t detract from the story.

I enjoyed this story. It reads clearly and quickly, and has a nice tight theme and story arc. I’d recommend it for fiction reads, particularly those interested in a story about being a refugee in the modern world.

Normally 'magic realism' in a book like this would turn me off, but although a little jarring, I was willing to run with it here because of its powerful symbolism.

The book opens on the brink of devastating political conflict in an unnamed city in the middle-east. It could be any of the cities that have been destroyed by war and extremism in recent times, and this adds to the potency of the first section. Saeed and Nadia's lives are torn apart, and their fledgling romance is forced to become serious very quickly. The earlier scenes describing the destruction and death surrounding them are wrenching.

The couple decide to escape through one of the magic portals that have started popping up behind doors in unexpected places. This is where the story could have come undone, but to me the doors symbolise the increasingly interconnected world we live in, and this is underscored by the frequent references to technology and the internet.

Their experiences as refugees, first at Mykonos and then in San Francisco, reflect those of countless people forced to flee their homes. This section of the book is not as powerful as it could have been, and in the end it becomes more about Nadia and Saeed's fading relationship, but I appreciate the fact that Hamid has looked past the misery of being displaced in a hostile and country and tried to envision a new type of society.

This short book tackles some big themes, and acknowledges the massive changes that have started and will only be accelerated by climate change. While the changes are frightening and disorienting, Hamid also offers hope, as seen in the opportunities for people to connect and experience other cultures through the doors, and the flowering of a 'new jazz age' in the shanty towns of the Bay area. While there is hope in the book, there is also a melancholy sense of the impermanence of everything, and this is seen in Nadia and Saeed's separation.

While the book explores interesting issues and the characters are sympathetic, the writing style distanced me from the characters somewhat and I would have liked to see the issues explored in a bit more depth

3.5 I'm at somewhat of a quandary on this one, as I thought the first half was outstanding in its depiction of an unnamed (apparently) Middle Eastern or South Asian country suddenly experiencing the terror of a devastating civil/religious war. The spare prose worked, and I was involved with the characters, Saeed & Nadia. And then - midway through, I thought Hamid lost his way with what is ostensibly the entire reason for the novel - depicting the experience of displaced peoples trying to find their way in a world that neither wants them, nor wishes to even consider their common humanity.

Part of this has to do with the 'magical realism' element which transports the characters to their destination in far too facile a fashion, effectively avoiding even dealing with the issues emigration from a war torn country necessarily entails (like the two years of intensive vetting the US requires). And then once in the three places S & N wind up - first Mykonos, then London, and finally the SF Bay Area (where I have lived 90% of my life) - NONE of it rings either factually nor emotionally true to me.

The Greek compound is far too smoothly run, with none of the horrors and deprivation such camps usually entail. The London townhouse that is squatted in by a group of 50 individuals from disparate locales also could never happen (yes, it is meant to be somewhat 'metaphorical', but I could never wrap myself around the total implausibility). And trust me, the 'Marin' section is also totally nonsensical: shanties in Sausalito? Laughable.

Many people have extolled the virtues of the book based apparently on sincerely wanting to champion something so timely, turning a much needed eye towards the harrowing experience of displacement. But in 'tidying', prettying up and essentially trivializing such a modern tragedy, Hamid does the subject a major disservice, IMHO.

I kept waiting for something of significance to happen. It never did. The beginning is interesting, as Nadia and Saeed meet in an academic setting while their unnamed Middle Eastern, ostensibly Muslim, city falls victim to internal strife and civil war. The time is obliquely set in the fairly near future, with ubiquitous cell phones and social media, but overlaid with drones and Big Brother surveillance all around. Then these mysterious, deep dark “doors” randomly appear, and Nadia and Saeed must decide whether to take a chance and escape. So the plot potential is actually pretty well set, but then very little of any significance happens.

The two sort-of lovers enter a few doors, ending up in places that vary from openly hostile to mostly ambivalent to somewhat accepting, but still, almost nothing actually happens. The author's flat, dispassionate, third person style never lets the reader into the characters’ true emotions; consequently, there is little emotional engagement with either Nadia or Saeed, and secondary characters are, annoyingly, neither named nor developed. I quickly grew weary of the page-long run-on sentences and the author’s penchant for telling us what is happening instead of showing us through his characters’ own thoughts, words and actions. Yes, I get it - we are all “travelers in time” and migrants in our own lives. This could have been a deep, thoughtful look at the immigrant experience. Instead, it is an obscure, flat disappointment.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but I was excited to read it because it was a nominee for the Fiction category in last year's Goodreads Choice Awards.

Exit West follows two characters primarily, Nadia and Saeed. Though it does switch points of view to other unknown people in the various cities the main characters live in. This was probably the only part of the book I didn't enjoy quite so much. I have a hard time investing or caring for characters who are unknown to the plot or have little to do with the main plot. But anyway, on to the actual story.

Both characters are well written and it's not hard to get invested in their lives. Living in the middle of war zone and having to move from place to place as refugees is a brutal way of life, and I felt for both of them so much.  I found myself liking Nadia's character more than Saeed's, but both characters are equally well developed.

The story itself is fairly short, the book is only 231 pages, but the story never felt like it was rushing along, or that there wasn't enough time for plot points to tie up.  I think Hamid has a wonderful balance in his writing. It's beautiful and doesn't have to be long and full of complicated prose to get his point across, and I really admire that.  I wish my own writing could be so concise someday. 

In the end I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads. 

This is a wonderful piece of work. To begin with, there is the rhythm of the prose and the nuances and evolution of the relationship between Nadia and Saeed. They begin in a country where freedom, prosperity and security are collapsing. They then become part of a world-wide migration, facilitated by a device Hamid imagines: doors which allow sudden movement from one country to another, although the destinations are never known before hand, and they soon become crowded with refugees, causing native resentment. Hamid manages to make the situation of the couple resonate with the reader why still maintaining some emotional distance. The couple experience deprivation, tension and at times, depression, but they, and the reader, are not consumed by the worst of what happens around them. Human dignity, and kindnesses, are often in evidence.

As an example of the prose: “Saeed’s father encountered each day objects that had belonged to his wife and so would sweep his consciousness out of the current others referred to as the present, ……..and Nadia encountered each day objects that took her into Saeed’s past …….and evoked emotions from her own childhood, ……and Saeed for his part, ……..and so in these several ways these three people sharing this one apartment splashed and intersected with each other across varied and multiple streams of time.” (p.81)

With the Booker short-listed The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the underrated How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, Mohsin Hamid has shown that he is one of the outstanding writers of his generation. Here once again, he takes an unusual narrative stance: a flat and matter-of-fact form of prose masking the huge emotional and physical upheaval of escape from an unnamed war-torn country (one supposes Syria) and blends it with a dash of magic realism, the ‘doors’ that are used for would-be emigrants to escape.

Unfortunately, Hamid’s magic failed to work for me on this occasion. The simplistic treatment and distancing effect of the prose left me feeling unengaged throughout the book. On an intellectual level, I could imagine what the two main protagonists, Nadia and Saeed, were going through and indeed, on occasion, my sympathies were profoundly aroused. But in the end I felt that this was an exercise of style over its potentially huge substance. There *is* a great book to be written on this subject – but this isn’t it. Or, at least, not for me.

I received an ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

I was impressed and moved by Hamid's first book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, so when _Exit West_ was made Multnomah County Library's "Everybody Reads" selection for 2018, I was thrilled and had to pick it up. Hamid's lyric writing style and ability to hold up a mirror to contemporary society (as he does in _The Reluctant Fundamentalist_ as well) certainly makes him one of the brightest authors of the time.

Strife and violence plague an unnamed Islamic country forcing many to become refugees, people simply opening a door through which they pass from one place to another. (In this, I am reminded of Adrienne Rich's poem, "Prospective Immigrants, Please Note".) Saeed and Nadia, two young refugees make the decision to leave their war-torn home for parts west: first Mykonos, Greece, later London and finally, Marin county. As they move, they face the uncertainty that all immigrants encounter and for which they anticipated before their departure. What they did not expect - and what makes this such a powerful and brilliant book - is the way they change as they move from place to place. That Hamid can evoke compassion, worry and empathy for his characters on their journey is what makes this such a powerful read.

Like all good science fiction, the story is a parable. Here, Hamid holds up a mirror to the West in the face of the crisis Syria and Iraq are currently experiencing. Hamid writes, "We are all migrants through time." I agree - and wonder how the future us will regard the decisions the present us are making. Highly recommended.

"We are all migrants through time.

This is the second book I've read that deals with the current refugee crisis. These books are timely, and get us out of the humdrum of our daily routines, so that people's tragedies aren't just a thirty second news clip...shocking and then easily forgotten. Being a newbie to Hamid's work, I was taken aback by the beauty and style of his prose, most notably during the first third of the book. I feel like the strongest, most raw part of the book dealt with Saeed and Nadia's experiences while living in their country on the brink of war, and then full on war. These passages read so beautifully, and ring true, like a window to another world.

"War in Saeed and Nadia’s city revealed itself to be an intimate experience, combatants pressed close together, front lines defined at the level of the street one took to work, the school one’s sister attended, the house of one’s aunt’s best friend, the shop where one bought cigarettes."

Thereafter, I had a hard time staying in the loop when the book took a speculative turn, which was a surprise because I don't read dust jackets. These parts were a little harder to believe, and less filled in. Some great lines here and there, but overall kind of blah. This is a nice introduction to Hamid's work though, so I'm excited to discover his other books.

Exit West is an absolute masterpiece, that is well crafted and inspires the reader to think about some rather important topics.

The story is well-written and the simplest plot line is the story of Nadia and Saeed who find love in an unnamed war torn country. Told through their experiences, Exit West explores how the world around us is dynamic and always changing. Along with this, the people in this world are also changing, both physically and in personality, as a result of their experiences. The choices a person makes or is forced to make, contribute to shaping who they are. This is articulated very well by the author.

The author uses imagery to bring into context the use of "doors" to travel to different places. As an example, we can relate our use of technology as a way of going into another world or sequence, that is quite different from the current reality. Another subtle focus is on the concept of migration and the refugee status in countries. The author brings out the idea that everyone, even if they do not move from the current place where they live, can be considered to be migrants since the world around them is always changing. People move to find shelter and a safer place to live, the basic things that we need to lead a simple life.

As the story progresses, we follow our lead characters as they take a trip through many such doors. Their experiences and adventures seek to shape the story and the messages brought out. At times I found it difficult to relate to Nadia and Saeed. They were lacking in character depth and some parts of the story didn't work for me. However, I found the concept of the story quite intriguing and I think that it is definitely worth a read! The book has received a lot of praise and it is well deserved.

It was my goal to read all five of the fiction finalist nominees for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. I almost made it. This, the fourth out of five I'd read, was as far as I got. And this was a rather phenomenal novel, unlike anything else I've ever read.

Nadia and Saeed meet and stumble uncertainly into a relationship in an unnamed country in which civil war has begun, quietly, sneakily, with factions of differing political and religious beliefs at odds, intolerance and massacre of "others" becoming the terrorific norm --- not unlike many countries all over the world, now, and a horrific harbinger of what could well bloom from the seeds planted here which have already wrought 45 and his gop/jackbooted cronies and deplorables.

Rumors are whispered about mysterious doors through which one can step from this unnamed war-torn country into safer, named other locations --- Greece, United States, London --- but refugees, those migrating, are not always welcome and those caught trying to escape are slaughtered. However, Nadia and Saeed manage to make it, exiting from more than one place to another, in transplantations that are the stuff of magical realism but made to seem perfectly normal by Moshin Hamid's adept and adroit prose styling.

This is a novel that defies genre, in which are explored the global refugee crisis, religious fanaticism, gender norms --- Nadia wears a long black robe, obscuring her shape, priestess-like, not because she is religious, but because she wishes to be protected from the presumptions of men, and the dynamics of natives versus transplants in a world with fewer and fewer borders yet more and more division.

It is not one of the avalanche of dystopian novels; there is, in fact, a certain foundation of hope in the narrative, a not unhappy ending. It is artful, it is fresh, it is full of fine, accomplished writing, and it is thought-provoking. Too, I imagine that nearly every reader will identify with the protagonists, and, too, in this world now, wonder what they would do if (or, more and more likely, WHEN) they find themselves in the same situation as Nadia and Saeed. Is there any among us since November 2016 who hasn't wondered when it is we might need to flee? (less)

A young couple find each other in an unnamed city at a time when their homeland is being torn apart by civil war. Stop me if you think you've heard this one before...but then, it turns out that their only means of escape includes a series of doors that can take them out of their city, far from the strife and violence that threatens to snuff out their love and their lives. Smooth sailing from here on out, right?

"Exit West," the first book I completed this calendar year (I read it in two sittings), is easily one of the most beautiful meditations on love, loss, and change that I've ever read. It takes a couple of familiar elements from other forms of literature (love during wartime, sci-fi exits to other distant places, the plight of the immigrant) and forms a cohesive story around what happens when a young couple is thrown together under extreme circumstances and must choose to try and begin a life together. Saeed and Nadia, two young people who find each other in a war-torn city, must leave behind everything that they know, and the toll this takes on them is rendered in prose that is quite beautiful and lulling. The author, Mohsin Hamid, is one that I'd never heard of before I picked up this book. He writes in a style that reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Italo Calvino (especially the Calvino of "Invisible Cities"). This is a beautiful book, at once life-affirming and heartbreaking.

Any author could make a novel out of either the "love in a war-torn country" or "exile from homeland and stress on the relationships"; Hamid manages, within a small amount of pages, to write a novel that embraces both. As Saeed and Nadia escape to what seems like freedom from worry with regards to their homeland, they encounter different, challenging situations that test them and their love. Whether it's yearning for the security of one's home and fellow countrymen or being initiated into new and more exciting possibilities than that with which you grew up, Hamid captures in both of his main characters the push and pull that immigration can have on those who are caught up in it. What does it mean to leave your home? What does it mean to try and find a new home? What can it do to the relationships you have, and how can it open you up to aspects of yourself that you didn't acknowledge or know about in your previous life?

"Exit West" is a wonderful book, and you owe it to yourself to read it.

'Exit West' can either be described as inventive by those who liked it, or strange by those who didn't care for it ... including myself. Well on the plus side the book is well written; the author is clearly very talented. And story about two lovers in a war torn Middle Eastern country starts off so well. But as this couple escapes their homeland the book takes a decidedly strange turn. The book takes a science fiction twist where emigration completely swamps all countries. Everything turns upside down before a new normal emerges. The strange turn isn't awful in by itself but it's not handled well. Endless questions are left unanswered.

Bottom line: could have been awesome but instead turned into "WTF?!". Not recommended.

Exit West is an odd bit of mystical fantasy and reality. The far fetched part revolves around these appearing and disappearing space portals that are disguised behind average random doors. These portals whisk those who enter between scattered places on the globe and are mostly used by the desperate refugees hoping to bring themselves and their loved ones to safety. Although these doorways make for some jarring rifts in the story, they serve to collapse the process of migration. The rest of the story seems very real. I found the descriptions of the fighting and the chaos that engulfed the lives of the people living in this war torn country to be chilling. The tension is palpable as more and more freedoms are taken away and the people try to cope and reconfigure their daily lives. The moment that all the cell phones and internet connections were cut was startling frightening in all of its isolation. Another horrific moment was when a loved one was killed when retrieving a common day item from the car. Episodes such as these make clear how the normal becomes untenable. I found the depiction of the refugee camps and the reception the refugees faced in the various countries to also be thought provoking. I was a little confused by the morphing relationship between Nadia and Saeed. Did they really love and accept each other? Exit West truly engulfs the reader in the tumult and suffering that is war. It brings a great understanding to the plight of refugees which is something we all need to understand and appreciate.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the storyline. The idea of doors showing up all over the world that lead to different cities is a very intriguing idea. This fantasy element isn't explained very thoroughly (or really at all) and I kind of liked it that way.

However, I hated how some things were just accepted and the bit of overhearing that served no purpose to the plot. In the beginning, the main character goes into excruciating detail about his parents' former sex lives, which is just ew. The only purpose this really serves was to mention why he's waiting until marriage to have sex. Also, later on a bunch of people take up a mansion that doesn't belong to them and for some reason, this is mostly accepted and hardly any police force is brought in. I mean, I guess it's supposed to be a good thing, but if someone took over my house (without my permission) I would be mad.

But what really bothered me while I was reading, was the writing. There are several sentences that go on and on and on. I first noticed this in the beginning when I was trying to figure out why I was (mostly) enjoying the book, but why it still felt like such a chore to read. I found one sentence that was over 500 words long, and while that may be an outlier, there were multiple sentences that had over 100 words, separated by tons of commas.

A standalone story of magical realism that brings a sad hope to so many seeking to escape the violence of civil war.

Exist West was nominated in 2017 for the Man Booker Prize.

My Take
It’s an unsettling tale using third-person point-of-view that gives insight into the plight of refugees, desperate for safety and a home, as seen through the eyes of one couple in a relationship imposed by circumstances.

It’s a conflict of being true to themselves, of having a choice. The independent Nadia and the suddenly religious Saeed, as they struggle to survive insurgents, other refugees, and those native to the countries to which they flee.

I’m tellin’ ya now that I have a prejudice against militants who try to enforce their beliefs on others, so it may well color this review. More resentment is due to my not understanding the bit about those doors. I thought it was supposed to be a real thing until it dawned on me: magical realism. Duh. And that’s the whole point of magical realism, that it feel so real with just that touch of fantasy.

My favorite part of this story was Nadia’s reason for wearing her all-concealing black robe. Smart girl, lol.

It’s an interesting look into another culture, another way of life. Of the constrictions between unmarried men and women. Of refugee problems as well as understanding the anger on the part of those whose lands are being “invaded”. It’s a catch-22 of survival.
”…by making the promise he demanded she make she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”
Hamid is smooth and his voice is consistent, as he slowly pulls us back and forth emotionally, following the downward slide of our protagonists. It’s a realistic exploration of a relationship founded more on desperation than actual love, and I felt so sad as I read this. I imagined my own life imploding as was theirs...and I couldn't. I didn't want to.

The Story
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet — sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. Their furtive love affair is 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.

The Characters
Nadia works in an insurance office. Her family cast her off for wanting to be independent.

Saeed works in outdoor advertising. His mother is a retired teacher while his father is still a university professor, but on reduced wages. Both his parents were readers…so romantic IMO.

The Cover and Title
The background of the cover is a gradient of deep, deep blue that pales into the middle before descending into a grayed-out red-violet. The title and author’s name are in a pale blue scratchy sort of font that reinforces their desperateness, words that begin to disappear into the background at the bottom. Both title and name are on a slant, although each has its own angle, rushing to leave, just as Nadia and Saeed rush.

The title is what Nadia and Saeed seek, an Exit West to escape the turmoil in their country.

This book has a fascinating premise and the prose was often quite beautiful, albeit sometimes peppered with self-consciously experimental long sentences. It was an easy read in that the pages turned quickly. But overall the story really fell flat for me, with the central premise of the doors basically acting as a Deus ex Machina device.

Perhaps the gimmick of the doors was supposed to be in the tradition of the magical realists or ancient story tellers, where sometimes supernatural things just aren't explained. But for a book about transition, place, and refugees, I really craved for the story to spend some time in those transitions--what happens when they're in between, inside the doors? The opportunity for exploring philosophical and emotional issues there is so ripe, and doesn't require giving up the magic realism element. Yet every time they went through a door, it was one sentence and over. This was driving me completely insane--such a missed opportunity for doing a deep-dive into the themes.

Similarly, the locations in the book were barely described, to the point where I was forgetting where we'd gone to at times. For a book about place/culture/movement/transition/identity/war/refugees, this was frustrating. How interesting the book would have been if we'd had a specific Middle Eastern country they were from, if we'd really been able to grasp what it was like for them at sensory, emotional, and other levels to get plopped out on a Greek beach or in London. The author's hesitation around deep-diving into the specifics of place is very confusing to me.

As a friend of mine said, it seemed like the author was trying to world-build, but then just kind of didn't.

Overall, the book reads as if a very faraway omniscient eye is looking down at a story after the fact, which could work. But details and descriptions are limited and vague; action and drama isn't immediate. The narrator needs to zoom that lens in big-time.

The characters, likewise, had potential, and in the beginning the author was doing an interesting job molding them, but they eventually stopped short of feeling like three-dimensional people to me with complicated motivations and inner states. It wasn't clear to me why their relationship evolved the way it did/didn't.

This book felt like a draft; its problems are related to very basic elements of what makes a good narrative, and editors/readers should have pointed those out to the author before it was published. I don't think this is uncommon when a writer has had a couple of very good books. Their third or fourth book gets rushed, whether for deadline and contract reasons, or because editors don't want to challenge a popular author.

3.5 Stars

”In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak for her. For many days.”
In public, Nadia is always dressed in a flowing black robe, covering every inch of her from her neck to her toes. Saeed has a shadow of a beard, stubble, which he meticulously maintains. They are studying corporate identity and product branding, despite the feeling of impending war.

”…our eternally impending ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does.”

Time passes, they meet quietly often, affections grow as do other feelings, and there is almost an endless feelings of the push and pull of their relationship, as the push and pull of opposing sides grows ever louder, larger and more present. More time passes, and they feel the need to find a place where they can live without this never-ending fear.

”Location, location, location, the realtors say. Geography is destiny, respond the historians.”

And so, they find a way out by virtue of cash, and leave for other shores, but while it is better, it is not the answer. Leaving family, leaving Saeed’s father behind. And so, they leave once more, and things are better, but still it is not the future of their dreams.

“…and so by making the promise he demanded she make she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”

There’s an element of magical realism that plays in this novel that I never felt I fully embraced. This is where it fell a little flat for me. The characters felt a little too one-dimensional to me, or maybe because they were also not overly likeable, it was not as easy to care about what happened to them. For me.

What did work well for me was the writing, which elevated this enough to keep reading, and also the premise of this novel kept drawing me back in. I kept hoping there was something that would live up to my expectations, and eventually, it did. What I loved most about this story was how all of this wrapped up in the end, a fitting and lovely ending.

"His eyes rolled terribly. Yes: terribly. Or perhaps not so terribly. Perhaps
they merely glanced about him, at the woman, at the bed, at the room.
Growing up in the not infrequently perilous circumstances in which he had
grown up, he was aware of the fragility of his body. He knew how little it
took to make a man into meat: the wrong blow, the wrong gunshot, the wrong
flick of a blade, turn of a car, presence of a microorganism in a handshake, a
cough. He was aware that alone a person is almost nothing."

People who have read this novel may wonder why I chose this excerpt, which begins almost frivolously. It is an incident from the beginning of the book, a throwaway character, never named, an incident that puzzles us for a moment before we pass on. Yet it says something important about Mohsin Hamid's style. As opposed to the first-person monologue of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, this has an omniscient narrator. Well, maybe not omniscient, but playful, refusing to close off all the possibilities as he looks down with elegant detachment. Yet when describing some of the ordeals his characters pass through, he is much more detailed than the abstract list here: we get the groping hand between the buttocks, the knife pressed to the neck, the blood dripping between the floorboards. Realism and detachment, in a perfect balance that is the novel's singular triumph.

"In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet
openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did
not speak to her."

The opening sentence of the novel, perfect in its way with its open-ended suggestion of the future. Or rather two futures: that of the city not yet at war, and that of the young man and woman who do not speak. Of course they will; another reason I chose my opening quote is its statement that "alone a person is almost nothing." This will become a love story of sorts: the young man, Saeed, will fall for Nadia, a young woman much more liberated than her all-enveloping black veil would indicate. Together they will face the weeks in which open war breaks out, the militants (think the Taliban or ISIS) take over, and men get their throats cut for having the wrong surname. Detached or not, in his first hundred pages, Hamid gave me a stronger, more visceral sense of what it is to live in a war zone than anything else I can remember.

Then Saeed and Nadia escape. I won't say how (though others might). Hamid's detached tone enables him to throw in a touch of magic realism that passes over the logistics of things that don't interest him in favor of the psychological realities that do. For the second half of the book is about migrants, a world of migrants, from all over the world. Hamid does not worry about how these people get from place to place, but he is very concerned about the details of the living conditions they will find, their relationships with the local people, and especially the changes they will discover in themselves. For both Saeed and Nadia will change as a result of their experiences; as Hamid is an optimistic writer, and his leading characters are strong, good people, both will grow, in ways that seem as inevitable as they are unexpected.

All the same, the change of gear at the half-way point, the shift from external action to inner feeling, is a risky strategy. For a while, I found myself questioning the enthusiastic five stars I had given the book at first. But then I came to the final sentence, ending in another of those future-possible phrases so exquisitely balanced it brought tears to my eyes. [I don't think it gives anything away unless you know the context.]

"He nodded and said that if she had an evening free he would take her,
it was a sight worth seeing in this life, and she shut her eyes and said
she would like that very much, and they rose and embraced and parted
and did not know, then, if that evening would ever come."

Could anything be more perfectly judged than that word "then"?

This is a truly unique book that I have mixed feelings about. I initially enjoyed both of the characters and loved the beginning of the book. I loved how strong and fierce Nadia was while Saeed was more quiet and pensive. They enter into a relationship while their city is full of unrest. As the unrest continues and it becomes more and more dangerous, they begin to hear about the "doors". Doors which could help them escape and take them far away. Not only far away from danger but far away from those they love.

Their story is about their experiences with each other as they have their romantic relationship and their experiences as migrants to the foreign countries they go to via the "doors" I appreciated how the Author showed how their relationship as well as the individuals were changed by their experiences. The how showed how experiencing things we cannot control affects us individually and as a couple. Even though they were affected, I wanted more character growth/more development.

I knew that I would have to suspend belief when I read this book. I am okay with that. I knew there was some magical realism involved so the idea of "doors" concept did not bother me one bit. What I wanted was more dialogue and more character development. Plus, I was not a fan of the brief vignettes. For me, the vignettes took away from the story and I often wondered if they were necessary.

I had heard a lot of hype about this book and many people I know enjoyed this book much more than I did. For me this was good, not great.

I was surprised at how much I loved this book! I have seen varying reviews and thought it might be too heavy, too political, too cerebral, or boring (since it's described as beautiful writing, and that can sometimes be a red flag of 'boring' for me). It took a few chapters to get my bearings, as I thought the initial character introduction meandered and the tone felt almost clinical. Then as I warmed to the style and had a feel for the world Hamid was building, I dove in and hardly looked up from the pages for the two days in which it took me to read. It IS beautiful, gorgeous even, but not boring at all. It manages to feel so very real, like a memoir, and yet so unreal and dreamlike. I had zero problems with the magical realism element, and I'd hate for it to turn anyone off from the book, since it is not at all heavy handed - just a means to an end for telling this story of immigrants. A heartbreaking story in ways that I did not expect. Again, an amazing juxtaposition of the very real way we relate to the world and each other, while being absolutely fantastical. I haven't highlighted this many passages since one of last year's favorites, The Mothers.
"..Nadia had taken one look aty Saeed's father and felt him like a father, for he was so gentle, and evoked in her a protective caring, as if for one's own child, or for a puppy, or for a beautiful memory one knows has already commenced to fade."
"..in contrast the city's dark swaths seemed darker, more significant, the way that blackness in the ocean suggests not less light from above, but a sudden drop-off in the depths below."
This is definitely going on the best of the 2017 list.

This is a book about refugees, specifically Nadia and Saaed who meet just as their home country is falling into a civil war. Their romance isn't quite like Ilsa and Rick, drinking all the champagne themselves to keep the Germans from getting to it. Instead, they, like everyone else in their city, try to go through the motions of normalcy: his job in ad sales, her job in insurance, his family, her independence, etc. Eventually there is too much war for them to ignore, and they are forced to leave.

Hamid captures the excitement and fear of fleeing to a foreign country with magic doors: doors that look like any other but take you directly to the next point in your journey. Nadia and Saaed, unmarried but together, wind up passing through Greece, England, and America. All the places come with their own benefits and drawbacks. None comes easy. Occasionally we get the point of view of a person who lives on the other side of a door, if only to remind us that people have been coming and going in all sorts of ways since the beginning. He also pauses to consider the futility of trying to stop human migration from happening.

Obviously a refugee crisis can be a sad, sad thing fraught with violence (and you can't help but think of Syria throughout), but don't pass the book by because you think it will be a laundry list of horrific details. Hamid of course lets you know problems are happening but doesn't dwell on them to the point it overwhelms the reader. Expect many wonderful poetic lines throughout ("and then he regarded Nadia and saw that she was regarding him and her eyes were like worlds.") Hamid's writing, often wordy and meandering itself, is a perfect vehicle for a book about journeys.

“We are all migrants through time.” Exit West is a story of migration, refugees and change, told through the experiences of an unmarried couple, Nadia and Saeed.

Saeed and Nadia meet while taking an evening class on corporate identity and product branding in an unidentified middle east city at an unidentified place of education. Nadia was clad “from the tips of her toes to the bottom of her jugular notch in a flowing black robe.” However, she was not at all religious and did not pray. Saeed had a beard, but not a full beard. “More a studiously maintained stubble”, and he prayed, but “Not always. Sadly.”

Nadia was extremely unconventional for a woman in a religious country – unmarried, living on her own and commuting here and there, on a scuffed motor bike. Saeed worked for an agency that specialized in the placement of outdoor advertising where he was responsible for working on pitches to potential clients. Nadia worked at an insurance company, handling insurance renewals. On their first date for coffee, Saeed asked Nadia why she wore her all concealing robe if she did not pray. “‘So men don’t f*** with me.”

Their unidentified city was filled with refugees, who “had occupied many of the open places in the city, pitching tents in the green belts between roads, erecting lean-tos next the boundary walls of houses, sleeping rough on sidewalks and in the margins of streets.” Violence was a constant and as Saeed and Nadia continued to learn about each other and grow closer, violence between the government and militants grew, curfews were imposed and the city was no longer a safe place to live and love.

As changes were occurring in the unidentified city, mysterious doorways were opening and people were walking through the doorways to places throughout the world. First in Sydney, Australia, one person emerged through a closet door in someone’s bedroom. Then in Tokyo, two Filipina girls popped up next to a disused door at the rear of a bar. Next was an incident in San Diego. Saeed and Nadia decide to leave their violent city through the doors, and in this way they find themselves first in Mykonos and then in London. In London, the doors take them to a mansion of sorts, where they share living quarters with other refugees. There is initially some violence against the refugees and then the government decides to build communities outside the city to accommodate the refugees.

While in London, Saeed worked in a road crew and Nadia in a female crew that loaded pipe. Together they leave London and go to Marin. Throughout all of this movement and struggle, the novel describes the conflicts between nativists and refugees, the fraught and yet ongoing lives of the refugees and the growing distance and conflict between Nadia and Saeed. Nadia and Saeed ultimately split and lead separate lives, but at the end of the book, 50 years after their separation, they find themselves reunited in the city of their births.

The book has some interesting insights into the violence and intolerance of various parts of the world, and the resultant leap of faith it takes to migrate, symbolized by the magic doors. But the story itself is somewhat shallow and unfulfilling, with a frustrating lack of character development (maybe that’s the point). The descriptions of the lives and difficulties of the refugees, and their relationships with the communities in which they find themselves feel almost like an afterthought. I finished the book wondering if that was all or whether I was missing the rest.

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Hamid's refugees emigrate through magic doors. It's an interesting gambit, allowing him to write about being a refugee without having to dwell on the physical horrors of emigration – no corrupt coyotes to bribe, no over-crowded boats to risk capsizing, no disease-ridden camps – just a focus, through the sensibilities of two young people in love, on the impact that being a refugee has on their attitudes and relationship.

Hamid also imagines the impact that the wave of refugees has on the societies which receive them, and how those societies try, with varying success, to adapt to the presence of the newcomers.

The tone of the narration is cool, whether describing the passion between the two lovers, or the threat of violence from the society outside the refugee ghetto, or the final dissolution of the lover’s relationship. Somehow this aloofness makes the pain even greater, as though etched in one of those 19th-century woodcuts.

Hamid presents no solutions to any of the questions he raises about emigration and its impact. Perhaps it is enough to have found a way to raise these questions without having to wade through blood and tears.

A deeply profound and unique story Exit West by Mohsin Hamid examines the transitory nature of life and how that applies particularly to those forced to choose between the known reality of turmoil at home and the unknown potential abroad.

"…but that is the way of things, with cities as with life, for one moment we are pottering about our errands as usual and the next we are dying, and our eternally impending ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does."

It begins with Saeed and Nadia in their home country teetering on the brink of some unnamed conflict- the tension and early destruction is sensed but life carries on with some degree of normalcy; it is still acceptable for a young man to find joy and friendship and love with a young woman.

"In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak to her. For many days."

Saeed is traditional, cautious and chivalrous while Nadia is fiercely independent and guarded. Their friendship slowly progresses into something deeper as they share experiences and dialogue. Over time, they grow closer together, building a relationship as the world around them crumbles. Saeed’s family becomes ensnared in the rising violence and as the conflict in their city reaches a pinnacle they must choose whether to stay or go. Consumed by grief, Saeed’s father chooses to stay behind so Saeed and Nadia embark on the journey alone.

"…but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind."

A dubious meeting in a dark alley provides the passage Saeed and Nadia need- through a mysterious doorway into the blinding white light and out the other side into an unfamiliar country swollen with other travelers. This fantastical metaphor reveals the heart of this story. The ease through with Saeed and Nadia travel through the doors is in striking contrast to the process refugees undergo today. However, the living after the arrival is not quite as simple. In each locale they struggle to find safety and refuge, basic necessities like shelter and food. Sometimes they stay and other times they seek out another door, another country and a new future. This daily uncertainty begins to erode Saeed’s and Nadia’s relationship and they are forced to examine their current situation in the context of their love.

"To flee forever is beyond the capacity of most: at some point even a hunted animal will stop, exhausted, and await its fate, if only for a while."

As with all things, the doors attract opposition and eventually the travelling comes with greater inherent risks. Some doors are no longer safe to travel through as captors await the arrivals while others are heavily guarded or destroyed. However, the travelers are resilient and their persistence perpetuates the production of new doors. Hamid takes this opportunity to meditate on the present truth of this scenario.

"Perhaps they had grasped that the doors could not be closed, and new doors would continue to open, and they had understood that the denial of coexistence would have required one party to cease to exist, and the extinguishing party too would have been transformed in the process, and too many native parents would not after have been able to look their children in the eye, to speak with head held high of what their generation had done."

Simple, fluid prose and elegantly strong metaphors provide accessibility to the deep significance of this novel. Exit West is almost deceiving in its initial simplicity as the narratives of Saeed and Nadia transcend generations but the purpose of their story and what it represents is exceedingly contemporary.

"We are all migrants through time."

Exit West begins in a Middle Eastern town besieged by rebels, a situation that becomes increasingly worse. Two young people, Nadia and Saeed, meet at a night class and begin to fall in love. In their separate ways, each of them is torn between tradition and the new. Saeed is religious, keeping to his daily prayers and (at least initially) vowing to remain chaste until marriage; yet he smokes pot, likes jazz, and keeps a fashionably stubbled beard. Nadia dresses traditionally in a black robe but never prays (she wears it to deflect male interest when she is on the street), loves her city, and has had lovers before Saeed. Their falling in love parallels their city's falling apart. Things get so bad that people stretch black plastic trash bags over their windows or push furniture to cover them; passing by your window has become an open invitation to snipers. After Saeed's mother is killed, the couple move in with his father, and they begin to talk about the rumors they have heard of secret doors throughout the city through which, for a price, one can escape. Saeed's father refuses to leave his home, but he and Nadia decide to pay an agent who promises to lead them to one of the magical doors. At first they fear they have been swindled, but then the day arrives, and they pass through the first in a series of doors, first to Mykonos, then to London, then to a newly created city in California. Their travels tell the story of refugees and the problems they face as they struggle to find a place to fit in and to settle down.

In many ways, the book is a parable of the present. We see a country torn by religious fanaticism; people fleeing in hopes of a better life but ending up in tent cities or as squatters; "nativists" blaming the newcomers for crime, loss of jobs, the burden on social programs, etc. And along the way, as life becomes a little less dangerous with each step, things begin to change between Nadia and Saeed as well.

There were many things that I admired about this book: the often lyrical language, the depiction of a city under siege and freedoms restricted, the persistence of two lovers hoping for a better life, the many parallels to situations we see almost every night on the news. I have to admit that I'm not quite clear on the theme or message Hamid wants to convey, or exactly what he means by making a parallel between the rise and fall of the lovers and the refugee crisis. It seemed almost that he was saying that people will bond in times of crisis, but when life is going smoothly, they focus on themselves and just move on . . . And I'm not fond of magical realism, so I found the mysterious doors rather annoying as a device to move Saeed and Nadia from one city to another. If only it was that easy for a refugee to get from Syria to a holding camp in Greece to a European sanctuary city to the USA (and these refugees can cross back over any time they wish). My solution was to just ignore the doors and follow the characters wherever they went. Despite these few frustrations, Exit West retained my interest enough to merit four stars.

When Nadia and Saeed first meet, their country is being torn apart by war. Islamic militants take over their city and eventually the entire country. Their love is heightened by the atrocities they witness against neighbors and loved ones. When they hear whispers about doors leading to other, better countries, they're desperate to find one. Saving and scrimping, pretending to be married, the couple slips through one door, into a refugee camp. The next door brings them farther from their homeland and everything they know. But it's the final door that makes them question not just each other, but themselves as well.

This is a brilliant book about the horrors people face in the homelands before they become refugees, as well as the indifference, hatred, and bigotry they face as refugees. I love the prose, I think Hamid's writing has a nice flow to it, and I'm amazed that he could be vague and specific at the same time. The only aspect of the story I didn't like was Nadia's insistence on wearing the black robe in public, especially after leaving the country, because she thought it made her safer.

Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel, Exit West, considers the plight of the thousands of modern refugees being forced to flee their homes by internal violence that has become the new normal in so many countries around the world in recent years. As their countries succumb to political and religious civil wars, hundreds of thousands of people flee their homelands with nothing but the clothes on their backs and whatever little they can carry with them. Hamid focuses on two young people, Saeed and Nadia, who are forced to run for their lives before it is too late – but he gives his story one surreal little twist.

Much like Colin Whitehead did in The Underground Railroad, Hamid interprets the escape mechanism of his refugees literally. Whitehead’s Underground Railroad was literally underground, complete with train stations and tunnels that connected certain cites in the South with those further north. Hamid’s characters cross borders by using literal doors that magically appear in buildings all over the world. Those crossing the thresholds of the doors have no idea what country they will magically step out into until they arrive, but the transportation is instantaneous. And, as long as the doors remain “open,” anything is possible. Some refugees, at least for a while, even go back and forth through the doors in order to bring supplies back to family members who prefer to remain in their home country.

Saeed and Nadia live in an unnamed country that is falling apart before their eyes. The young Muslims are not married and have to be very careful about how they conduct themselves in public - and even in the privacy of their own homes – if they are to continue to fly under the radar of militant Muslims who would gladly punish them for their “sins.” Marriage is not practical under the circumstances, and when Saeed and Nadia step through their first door out of the country, they do so single.

That first door opens into Greece, but for many reasons, Greece will not be the last stop for Saeed and Nadia. Native populations resent being overrun by refugees whose cultures are so different from theirs, and violent clashes with police and private citizens become more and more common as refugee populations grow in number. The two decide to move on, finding things to be much the same whichever country they step into, and the constant search for food and medical care adds to the fear of violence that Saeed and Nadia already feel. Before long, their relationship begins to suffer under the stress, and neither seems to have the will to fix the problem.

Although Exit West is told from the refugee point-of-view, Hamid does not paint a black or white picture of his characters based upon which side of the border from which they originate. Not all refugees are good people; not all citizens of the receiving countries are bad. The author chose to focus on the mindsets of his characters, and the use of magic portals to get them instantly from one country to the next allows him to do just that. Exit West, while not exactly an eye-opener, is a moving novel that deserves to be read.

.. in a classroom and did not speak to her.’

There are over 65 million refugees in the world at present. Over 65 million displaced people. Many of these people lived in homes, had jobs, lived what many of us would recognise as a ‘normal’ life. And, for many in this world, it is horrifyingly easy to move from having a normal life to becoming a refugee. In this novel, Mohsin Hamid writes of two young people, Saeed and Nadia whose lives are about to change dramatically, be disrupted, from normal to in need of refuge.

Saeed and Nadia are instantly recognisable: young city dwellers with smartphones, users of social media. They first meet at an evening class ‘on corporate identity and product branding’. The city they live in and the country it is part of are not named: an anonymous backdrop to very personal stories. In public, Nadia wears a flowing black robe. It may (or may not) be a form of Islamic dress. What it provides Nadia with is a form of camouflage, the freedom of anonymous independence. And cloaked in this anonymous independence, Nadia is much more adventurous than Saeed.

The city becomes more violent: people are killed, others flee. In this novel, mysterious doors suddenly appear in different places within the city and provide portals for those using them to western countries such as Greece, the United States and the United Kingdom. Desirable places, places where those seeking refuge would like to be.

But arrival in a desirable place is the beginning of a new phase, both for Saeed and Nadia as well as for the world. Lots of people are moving. So many people are moving between places that it seems to be accepted as normal. But what about Saeed and Nadia? Are their new lives better? Can the past ever really be left behind?

I found this novel challenging. On the one hand, I liked the idea that notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ might break down as people moved more freely between places. On the other hand, I can’t envisage how people could adapt so readily to change. And yet, many do.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Contrary to some opinions rendered here, I don't think this book will be one for the ages, though I appreciate that it speaks to the current vast population displacements which are causing ugly, violent, racist, nativist counter-reactions in Europe and the US. Populations have been displaced since the beginning of the human race, unfortunately, and migrant portrayals are always sad and cruel and inhumane. I thought this book tried to mimic Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" in using the device of "doors" (per stops on Whitehead's railroad) to magically transport people to different worldwide locations. A love story is wrapped up in this disruption and some gratuitous scenes seemingly unrelated to the central story are tossed in, I'm guessing to show that we are all displaced people. Bottom line: I found myself racing through this book to finish it. I kind of liked it, didn't love it. Its spiritual passages were terrific, but its writing style seemed self-consciously biblical.

3.5★

I did get caught up in the telling of this very important subject, but I gradually lost interest. It’s the story of refugees finding themselves in very foreign countries and how they and the natives deal with it. Their lives are uncertain, changing from bored hunger to terror when hearing a knock on a wall or a voice outside, but I’m afraid the repetitive nature of their boredom spilled over to me.

The style at first is pretty straightforward, and I didn’t care for it. Then the author started adding some long sentences with lots of thoughts connected, and I enjoyed these, as they kept me turning the page. After one too many, though, it felt like a device to make me read, which distracted me from the story itself and put me off. Might be just me. And I don't know how many there actually are.

The story. Nadia and Saeed are the young woman and young man who live and work in an unnamed city where Saeed says morning and evening prayers and Nadia wears a black robe just to keep men from bothering her. So, somewhere in the Middle East. They meet when studying the same course.

Then there are the parents, and there’s quite a lively bit about his mother’s ravenous sexual appetite (no idea why), and all through the story, there’s a recurring theme about Nadia and Saeed: will-they-won’t-they progress beyond fiddling and diddling.

Normal family dynamics, one might think. But then it’s mentioned, almost casually, that Nadia’s cousin had been

“ blown by a truck bomb to bits, literally to bits, the largest of which, in Nadia’s cousin’s case, were a head and two‑thirds of an arm.”

As events like this become everyday and things deteriorate further, they start looking for ways to escape to the West, and here the author has used magical realism, fantasy, call it what you like. It’s reminiscent of the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe from 1950 or the more recent wormhole in Stephen King's novel 11/22/63, which I read only recently. Suffice it to say, refugee camps spring up all over the world, seemingly out of nowhere.

Here’s why they want to go. Saeed’s father is walking home. (At 138 words, this is not the longest sentence in the book, but you’ll get a sense of the style. I quite enjoy it . . . now and then. Occasionally.

“Once as he stood there he saw some young boys playing football and this cheered him, and reminded him of his own skill at the game when he was their age, but then he realized that they were not young boys, but teenagers, young men, and they were not playing with a ball but with the severed head of a goat, and he thought, barbarians, but then it dawned upon him that this was the head not of a goat but of a human being, with hair and a beard, and he wanted to believe he was mistaken, that the light was failing and his eyes were playing tricks on him, and that is what he told himself, as he tried not to look again, but something about their expressions left him in little doubt of the truth.”

And we have bodies on pikes, soldiers bursting into buildings, murdering people because of their last names, whatever. Time to go. But it's a terrible thing to leave family

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

Nadia and Saeed’s relationship keeps swinging between passion, friendship, camaraderie, disagreement and antagonism. Very often we’re told how they are sitting or sleeping, cramped in a tiny area, thighs touching, or arms touching or shoulders bumping or just huddled for warmth. They have to stick, literally stick, close together for protection, which makes their relationship even more difficult.

Nadia says the natives (where they've ended up) are so scared they might do anything.

"‘I can understand it,’ she said. ‘Imagine if you lived here. And millions of people from all over the world suddenly arrived.’

‘Millions arrived in our country,’ Saeed replied. ‘When there were wars nearby.’

‘That was different. Our country was poor. We didn’t feel we had as much to lose.’

It's been my experience that in times of strife, it's those who don't have a lot to share who are the most generous. People like me, who live comfortably, are more protective of their own 'stuff'.

Their story didn't really grab me, but I am horrified by the overall plight of the millions of people in these situations, having to throw their lots in together, trusting people they don't know and just running from bombs and slaughter into who-knows-what. From the frying pan into the fire?

I did enjoy meeting some of the other people. (Another long sentence.)

“Initially Nadia did not follow much of what was being said, just snippets here and there, but over time she understood more and more, and she understood also that the Nigerians were in fact not all Nigerians, some were half‑Nigerians, or from places that bordered Nigeria, from families that spanned both sides of a border, and further that there was perhaps no such thing as a Nigerian, or certainly no one common thing, for different Nigerians spoke different tongues among themselves, and belonged to different religions.”

I have no doubt this will be a runaway hit. I do hope it makes us all uncomfortable enough to pressure our countries to do better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin / Hamish Hamilton for the review copy from which I’ve quoted.

Saeed and Nadia are lucky to be well-educated and from caring families that live in homes protected by the government. This affords some amount of protection from the religious fundamentalists that threaten their city and homeland. Unfortunately, the protection is not enough and the new lovers must find a way out of the country. They must leave behind their families and communities and navigate the world of refugees while also kindling their relationship.

I heard about this book because it was one of the March Book of the Month Club selections. While I loved the characters for the very beginning, the story moved too slowly for me for almost half of the book. Then, it started to grow on me. This book had a lot of different things going on. There was the romance between Nadia and Saeed. Saeed is a quiet, studious young man who lives with his parents but Nadia is a headstrong young woman who left her family's home despite their objections. While they had very different personalities, I felt myself hoping that their relationship would work. Refugees and migrants have been front and center in international news recently and the travels of Saeed and Nadia made one think about this very relevant and contemporary topic. Through the couple's emigration, we also touch on how people change based upon the environment that they are in and how these changes in personality may have an effect on their relationships. There is even a bit of fantasy which I usually stay away from but worked well in this book.

The characters in this book are really very interesting. I love how they changed over time and their environments. It was also refreshing to read an author show characters that can understand both sides of arguments like immigration and the treatment of refugees versus the rights of the native population. I almost abandoned this book in the beginning because of the slow start but towards the middle, I really started enjoying it. The story became more interesting and appealing. Hamid is a wonderful writer and there were so many quotes and ideas that I believe would be relevant to a wide audience. I enjoyed this book and I think that this book would be great for readers that enjoy novels that are rich in culture or that showcase the refugee experience. I encourage anyone who is struggling with it at the beginning to stick with it as there are great rewards at the end.

Exit West is a book that tackles a very important issue in a lightweight capsule which makes it a delicious read.
In only 240 pages, Mohsin Hamid tells the story of Nadia and Saeed. Nadia and Saeed are citizens of an unnamed country who meet for the first time in an after work class. They feel the chemistry and no sooner than their friendship starts they know there’s more to it than friendship. Whether it’s love or not, it’s not clear to them yet, but obviously what they have is more than friendship.
The unnamed country is a country on the verge of war and terrorism. No sooner than their relation starts, the country is turned upside down in a military coupe. The militias are taking over and setting their own rules, curfew, new regulations and fear. They are killing anyone who might be opposing them.
It’s in these tough circumstances that people discover The Doors. The Doors is a phenomena almost like a dream to everyone. The Doors is also the fantasy flavor of this book. A door can take you anywhere in the world. All you need is to find a door. However, you don’t know where the destination might be. But doors are also risky. If you are caught trying to use a door, the militias will kill you.
Through these doors, Mohsin Hamid tells us the story of Nadia and Saeed in a fantasy like tale. However, this is a different type of fantasy. It’s a more realistic fantasy. It’s rather a symbolic fantasy.
You choose how you want to perceive this book. From one perspective, Exit West is a book about love, relations, friendship and loss. It’s a book enriched with emotions. However, that’s not all because perceiving the book as merely the story of Nadia and Saeed doesn’t give it its right. The book is rather a symbolic book.
In a very delightful and packed book, Mohsin Hamid introduces the immigrants’ dilemma. He poses a question. What if the whole world is one big country where those doors link geographies together that where before the doors unlinked? Moreover, in a sense, passing through these doors makes everyone an immigrant. Also, there’s the dramatic reasons why some immigrants flee their countries. There’s how immigrants deal with their new realities and how they interact with other immigrants.
Exit West is a thought provoking book. It gives a new dimension to immigrants. It makes us think… Who are we? Are we responsible for our origins? Aren’t’ we all alike, having same hopes, same fears and same aspirations? It’s a book about humans interacting with humans.
The audiobook was amazing. I call this the author/narrator bliss. I always find the author to be the best one to narrate his book. He feels the book. Mohsin Hamid’s narration was great.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Length: 240 pages
Audio Narrator: Mohsin Hamid

Single Sentence Summary: As warring factions tear their country apart, a young couple meets, falls in love, and makes the difficult decision to leave their homeland.

Primary Characters: Nadia – An unusually independent young woman. Nadia lives on her own and rides a motorcycle. Not at all religious, she wears a burka robe to dissuade unwanted advances. Saeed – A gentle man who loves his parents, his homeland, and Nadia.

Synopsis: It’s a story that happens all too often. A country is at war with itself. Militants and the military begin battling in the streets; cities are bombed, innocent people die. Amidst this backdrop, Nadia and Saeed meet and begin a tentative relationship. With the fighting becoming more and more dangerous, Saeed and Nadia become closer, living more intimately than they might have had their world been peaceful. It becomes clear that the danger is too close. If they stay they may not survive, and then they begin to hear talk of doors. Doors. Doors that can take you to another place, a safer place.

Review: WOW! Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is brilliant. I wasn’t sure what to expect, knowing that the book involved some magical realism, which I don’t tend to like. However, I could not have been more wrong. The doors, transports, were that magical element in this otherwise realistic story. They actually turned out to be a beautiful literary device because the movement of people via these doors also seamlessly moved the story. At its core, Exit West was a book about refugees, immigrants. The doors were a quick way of transporting people without bogging the story down with hundreds of pages about their journeys. I loved the doors.

I actually listened to Exit West on audio where it is magnificently narrated by the author, making it a little hard to separate writing from narration. In this case the two are almost one in the same, both lyrical, compelling, and so authentic. From the first words, I knew this book was going to be special.

“In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak to her. For many days.”

In Nadia and Saeed, Hamid delivered characters who you knew intimately, but who also were representative of the larger refugee population. They all were forced into new places, living with strangers, struggling to find enough food, and often being harassed by “nativists.” On the surface Exit West is a wonderful story of love and evolution between two people under extraordinary circumstances; but, at its heart Exit West is a study of the world at large and the capacity of its citizens to accept, to welcome and to assimilate immigrants into their own homelands. In that it’s a timely story of what the world could be.

Exit West is a book everyone should read. It will leave you feeling hopeful and enriched. The audio version was outstanding. Hamid has a lovely lilt to his voice that was extremely pleasant to listen to. His pace and inflections were perfect. Any way you experience it: print, e-reader, or audio, you’ll be glad you read Exit West. Grade: A

There's a bit of a disconnect between the beginning and end of this novel, but they're both appealing in their own right. The first half tells a love story in the characters' war-torn home country (which is never specified by name but appears to be somewhere in the Middle East), tracking their growing intimacy against the rising tension of violent extremism. The second half then sends the two lovers teleporting through a series of strange doors that have suddenly appeared around the world, presenting a magical realist take on the refugee experience as borders begin to dissolve and people seek out new homes away from war.

A lot is left unsaid, but I found the story very moving, especially as author Mohsin Hamid explores the ways in which people and relationships can gradually change over time, essentially making migrants of us all as we unavoidably leave our pasts behind. I would have liked greater cohesion between the two plots of civil war and swivel door, but I can easily see why this book made so many best-of-2017 lists.

A life on the move can be exciting, but also tiring if you're running away from something. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid follows two young people as they travel away from their home country to escape the brutalities of a civil war.

Two students, Nadia and Saeed, in a country stressed from civil war begin a relationship despite the obstacles and fears they face. When their city faces severe unrest many people, the young couple included, seek an escape from the violence they face. Finding a route out through doors to new places at a steep cost, Saeed and Nadia travel their way west, toward cities such as London, England and Marin, California. In trying to find somewhere they can settle without being demeaned as refugees, they work to find a sense of home and who they are as both individuals and a couple.

The story has a universal and timeless resonance that speaks to the dangers in the world as it offers a glimpse into the harsh realities of life as a refugee, which is a haunting reflection of contemporary situations. There's a strange sense of setting, with the unnamed war-torn country that Saeed and Nadia are exiting from to find a safer place to live, all of which are named and well-described. Quickly depicting the budding relationship and the way that the two grow apart, the narrative develops realistically to accommodate the personal growth of Saeed and Nadia.

Saeed and Nadia are young adults who fall in love in an unnamed city in an unnamed war-torn country. When the violence claims the life of a loved one, they decide to flee through one of the “doors” to a less volatile country. They travel to Mykonos, then London, then California in an effort to establish a new life but are always perceived as an inconvenient nuisance to the “native” population of their new homeland. This novel offers an allegorical look at the refugee crisis in the world today and also a sidelong glance at the effects of climate change. Unfortunately for our two characters, as their lives become a little less dismal and precarious, their love for one another starts to wane. Consequently, they have to face the awkwardness of de-coupling after they’ve endured so much hardship and turmoil together. Adversity magnifies their personality differences, as it causes Saeed to turn to his religious roots and seek out fellow countrymen, while Nadia branches out and embraces her independent spirit. In any case, they are not dreamers seeking a better life. They are productive people who have left behind jobs, property, and loved ones just to survive. I did not love this novel as much as The Reluctant Fundamentalist, but I still enjoyed the author’s writing style and his treatment of some sticky current issues. The poignancy of Saeed and Nadia’s inability to forge a sense of belonging in a foreign land is, for me, the point of the story. The erosion of their sense of belonging to each other is sad, too, but also implies hope for a new beginning.

As I began reading this book, I assumed that the author was developing a realistic story about the life of two young people living in a contemporary unnamed middle-eastern country undergoing military cruelty and civilian chaos. Short vignettes interrupted the main story line and, at first, I assumed that the author was introducing characters and situations that would later intersect with the main plot. But after reading several chapters, I realized I had encountered a different type of story. The young man and woman escaped through magical doors that led them to new countries in a not- too –distant future time. The vignettes that interrupted the main story were not intended to contribute to the narrative but to the themes of chaos, struggle and change that came to all. Some sought adventure through new experiences, while for those who stayed in the same place, change came with time, aging, and the changes around them.
The young man and woman first went through a door that led them to a Greek island, and then London, and finally California. In each place they had to struggle to survive and deal with the natives of the countries who were distressed to have the new arrivals in their country. The young man tried to hang on to what he could of his culture, religion and traditions while the young woman was more open to new adventures. The spare text evokes a spare, emotional tone that reflects the ability to go forward to make a daily life in spite of chaos. As a person who loves family, longtime friends, and traditions and feels worried about our world, I ended my reading feeling a bit pensive and sad. If I belonged to a book club, I would choose this original and thought-provoking book to discuss.

Nadia and Saeed live in a city at the brink of war. When the militants take over the city it is time for the two of them to leave. They have heard of the black doors leading to places all around the world and so they decide to use one of those doors to make their escape.

With the refugee crisis, Mohsin Hamid chose a current theme for Exit West. We get to experience the crisis from the perspective of those directly affected – the refugees themselves. This way, we can see that the foreigners coming to our countries, looking for safety, are just humans like us, that they often come from a background similar to ours, and that war or displacement can change them for the better or for worse.
The novel also shows what people, what our own neighbors, are capable of if they are scared of the unknown, and what the world could come to if we give in to our fears.

Exit West is a quick and fluid read up until the middle of the book where Nadia and Saeed end up in London. Their stay there drags on quite a bit. What I really enjoyed were those few short glimpses at other people’s lives during the crisis that are interspersed into the main plot.

Mohsin Hamid wrote a short book packed with information and themes. Exit West is a novel that couldn’t be closer to reality and still there is a pinch of magical realism to illustrate that the whole world is on the move. It’s one of those books that should be a compulsory read for those who lack empathy and humanity.

*A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.

I'm not sure where to begin with this one. The writing is great. It captures the insanity of a war torn country, how it rips families apart, and the lengths people will go to for survival. I felt like I knew and understood the characters in a short period of time. And yet I still feel like I will never be able to fully understand what it means to live through something like this.

There is a lot of detail in the early portion of the book that helps ratchet up the tension later. It goes into the mundane aspects of these characters' lives without getting boring. Instead it sets the scene for things to come.

One element that might throw readers off is related to the doors. At first I wasn't sure what to make of them. These doors are a means for escape and go a long way to mirror the situation of refugees in the real world. It becomes haunting in a way. Just don't allow yourself to get hung up on the fantastic nature of the doors. They allow the story to move in a way that it simply couldn't without them, which keeps things progressing.

The doors don't prevent the book from changing pace though. It does slow down in the latter part of the story. I am both pleased and disappointed with the way the story ends. It's worth taking the journey with these characters.

This is a book that truly captures you. I finished it in just under 3 hours, broken up, and it was beautiful. The development between the two characters, how real it made everything even in a world with a fantastical aspect (magical doors instead of boats/trucks), was incredible. That said, that slight magical aspect does not take away at all how much this is written based on the refugee crisis. They are guarded and treated as borders, and you feel the fear and the pull to other locations just like Nadia. I don’t entirely understand why Hamid would cut away every few chapters to discuss someone other than those two, a random character in a random location, never to be mentioned again, but it seemed to add to it. It created the book into more of a world wide planet full of people instead of this insulated relationship and threat

Saeed and Nadia are young lovers driven out of an unnamed city under siege, which could be Lahore, could be Aleppo. Saeed and Nadia, along with their nameless home town, are stand-ins for the vast movement of displaced persons fleeing unstable places.

Hamid uses the literary device of “doors” to move his refugees from one place to another. This allows him to skip over the suffering of actual migration, generally the point of refugee tales. Leaving their families behind, the couple wind up on a Greek island before popping through to London, then, finally, to northern California. Saeed is religious and becomes more so as they endure the marginal existence of displaced persons. Nadia is secular to begin with, and becomes more so as they move about. Tensions grow and their differences widen as they struggle to survive where they're not wanted.

Hamid tells the story in the third person at some remove. This narrative distance, combined with the device of the doors and the futuristic settlement scenarios in London and Marin turn the novel into a parable of displacement. By taking the big picture view, Hamid makes it difficult for his readers to experience empathy for the trials of his characters and outrage at the injustice of their fate. Unfortunately, although the topic is timely and important, this presentation of it will not breach the walls of a defended or indifferent heart.

In an unnamed war-torn country, Saaed and Nadia meet and begin a relationship, while the city around them is crumbling. They begin hearing rumors of mysterious doors appearing out of nowhere—doors that, when entered, will take them somewhere new.

And so Saaed and Nadia, early into their relationship, begin a journey together.

It's easy to understand how timely this book is right now: it poses metaphorical ideas about immigration and migration at a time when countries are closing their proverbial doors to desperate refugees. But Hamid isn't interested in hitting readers over the head with heavy-handed moral conclusions or sensationalized descriptions.

Instead, the main focus is Nadia and Saaed. This is, first and foremost, a modern love story—or rather, a story about love. I appreciated this approach. There's a distinct universality about Nadia and Saaed's relationship, its ebbs and its flows, that reminds us of our shared humanity at a time when it's especially important to humanize the struggles of others. The arc of their relationship could be any ours.

Hamid's prose flows like poetry but remains highly readable, carrying readers through with a sense of purpose—serious in spite of the whimsical magical realism.

"We are all migrants through time," he writes, again infusing the concept of migration with a sense of universality, connecting it to the very core of human nature.

Exit West is one of those terrific novels that draws you in almost immediately and keeps you enthralled throughout. It is relatively brief but surprisingly deep, and the connection the reader forms with the main characters, Nadia and Saeed, is immediate and powerful. I was moved and enchanted by this story of love amidst a contemporary apocalypse in which refugees displaced by international conflict and sectarian violence find a mixed blessing of salvation and potential persecution via the use of "doors," wormhole-like passages allowing instantaneous transport to another location on earth. This book describes a frightening future, but is a surprisingly hopeful and encouragingly optimistic view of the human ability to adapt to the worst situations imaginable. I cannot express strongly enough how much I enjoyed this story.

Excellent book that deserves the honors it has been awarded. I was expecting something a bit different, perhaps a little more sci fi since I knew about the doors but the doors have little to do with the story except as a metaphor. It works on several levels. It works showing how a city can quickly become a war zone and helps the reader understand the plight of refugees. It works showing how a society might deal with an "open border". But in my opinion, it works best showing how a relationship develops and changes. The wording at times is so beautiful that I had to stop and mark the page.

"...not unlike a couple that made out of opportunities for joy, misery".

"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 their parents..."

The writing truly resonated with me.

I've heard wonderful things about this novel without really having a solid idea of what Exit West is about. And maybe, going into this novel with no idea what to expect is the best way to dive into it.

This book was a delightful surprise.

Exit West is short punch-in-the-gut of a novel. At only 230 pages, you'd think this is a novel that you want to get through in a day. But that's not how I read this. I took this novel in small chunks, little bits and pieces, savoring every bite. The writing is beautiful, winding, and unabashedly naked.

"...that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind."

And the story is about war, about migration, about finding yourself in a new place, about relationships, and growth. It's above love, banding together, about being afraid, being alone, and about starting over. There's so much here. So many pieces to take away from this.

I don't really want to say any more than that. Experience it for yourself. Definitely recommend.

EXIT WEST asks us to plunge into a world where imaginary doors open to new locations. With a fabulist tone, author Mohsin Hamid sends young lovers Nadia and Saaed on a wild ride from an unnamed city in an unnamed country in the midst of civil war, to the relative sanctuary of refugee work camps on the outskirts of a fictionalized London, then eventually to California’s Marin County where residents might construct a shanty cabin, where they endure and begin to dream of new futures. Maybe there is no ultimate sanctuary, save for unfettered imagination and the novelist's vision? This novel is a manifesto for our current times, when people everywhere deserve to experience lives free from war. When is there to be an end to families lost, dispersed, abandoned. Is migration a curse, or a privilege? Cinematic in scope, provocative.

“We are all migrants of time.”

This timely, beautifully-crafted novel by the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist begins with a young man and woman who fall in love even as their country is falling apart. It follows the journey as the fragile refugee couple move from country to country, trying to find a place to belong. It is unsettling, because it is both painfully current but also because it has magical realism elements (refugees escape from country to country through magic doors that instantly transport them from one place to another.)

The magical realism forces you to think hard about the writing – for example, the descriptions of Greece sound very current and realistic, but the dystopian vision of London is not (yet) a true one. Sometimes this works well, other times it’s a distraction. For me the start was stronger than the end – post-London it lost some energy – but the start was so strong as to be extraordinary.

Highly recommended for its masterful prose, global worldview, complicated love story, and the painfully real examination of what it means to be displaced.

Almost every human longs for a better world, and wants to live a settled life in a community where we can love and be loved. Protagonists Nadia and Saeed are those people, just like us, in Mohsin Hamid’s novel titled, Exit West. They fell in love in a distant city, and when violence reaches their doorstep, they flee, and are separated from their community and loved ones. To ease their passage and to manage the separation, Hamid uses the device of magic doors. Would that these doors exist, given the plight of people like Nadia and Saeed in many parts of the world today. Hamid takes the headlines, and brings them close to everyone’s home in this finely written novel. He captured our situation, in my view, in this excerpt: p. 158 “The news in those days was full of war and migrants and nativists, and it was full of fracturing too, of regions pulling away from nations, and cities pulling away from hinterlands, and it seemed that as everyone was coming together everyone was also moving apart.” All this separation needs to be healed. We need to mend all these fractures. Hamid does some mending with his finely written prose in this novel.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

Taking place in an unknown city, Exit West is a fable and love story between Nadia and Saeed. Their city, initially, appears to be a thriving one full of restaurants, cafes and everything normally taken for granted in civilized society such as electricity and running water. Yet, there is an undercurrent of unrest as the so-called militants are slowly making headway against the government forces. There is a sense of realism in the initial storyline except for small apparently random episodes of individuals appearing suddenly in different locations throughout the world. Their relationship changes as the world around them changes and they wind up together as much by necessity as by desire. The militants take over and their world collapses around them.
The story then takes on a mystical element as they are told about doorways that can take people instantly to different parts of the world. The means of travel is not important but the fact that they become refugees and how that affects them as people is the overriding concern. Their relationship is ultimately affected.
This is a very timely book. It gives the reader a better sense of the hell the inhabitants of areas such as Syria and Iraq are going through with militant groups such as ISIS. Civilization collapses into daily death and destruction. The refugee issue later becomes front and center. Empathy with the characters will lead to a better understanding of the refugee crisis. Though the story remains a bit out of sync with reality (as we have no refugee camps in Marin, CA and parts of London are not being overtaken by worldwide refugees ), it may be a warning as to what is to come. The writing is beautiful and all the characters depicted realistically. The book will give the reader many reasons to think and contemplate the refugee problem. Highly recommended.

As other reviewers here have said, not only were the characters not fully developed, the author's writing style was downright painful. Run on sentences, a super formulaic prose, it just irked me. I read the book for a book club and fortunately finished it in 3 days, but in the end I would not wish this chore on anyone but an enemy (lol). I can't imagine how this book won awards, perhaps it was released at the right time and held the right premise, but it totally missed the mark on resembling anything enjoyable, in my opinion. Also, it should be noted, I got this book as an ebook at my local library and read it on my app, but felt as a prime member and the store loyalist it's my duty to share my opinion here as well, since I value the opinions of others (sans book club) when selecting my books each month.

I feel a little bit like I just read our futures. Take out the magical realism part of the book and Hamid’s story could be just where our world is heading. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I do not know. However, if it does happen, I hope everyone keeps as much humanity as Hamid packed into this story. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in fighting politics that we forget the actual people behind the reasons we are fighting–and he put it all back in.

I find it interesting that my library has this listed as a “romance” on the binding. I suppose there is an element of love in the beginning, but it is so much more than that. This definitely falls into the Literary Fiction category, and I will not be surprised to see it make awards lists this year.

Exit West is so subtle that to tell too you much about it would give away the whole thing. You will make assumptions along the way–but pay attention. The road is gonna get twisty, but it is well worth the ride.

This has to be the best literary fiction on the refugee crisis. It is the best book I have read from the author.

Nadia is an independent spirit woman growing up in a society where one should not stand out. Saeed is a pious and quiet young man that will always stay within the lines. Their relationship is destined to stretch each other.

As they pass through doors to migrate from Mykonos to London to Marin, it reflects on human power to hope and the human power of cruelty. Refugees are ready to bear any hardship and 'natives' are equally ready to never let them settle. It makes me wonder if we have progressed beyond middle ages as a society.

A memorable passage - Saeed was more melancholic than he had been before, understandably, and also more quiet and devout. She sometimes felt that his praying was not neutral towards her, in fact she suspected it carried a hint of reproach, though why she felt this she could not say, for he had never told her to pray nor berated her for not praying. But in his devotions was ever more devotion, and towards her it seemed there was ever less.

Exit West is well intentioned, but thin. The characters are not well developed. While Hamid paints what looks like a tellingly accurate picture of life for the exile on the run and life in the camps, it is difficult to develop any empathy with his cardboard characters. I am quite confident that there is a great novel to be written about the cataclysmic fate of people from the Middle East and beyond in recent times, this is not it.

Moreover, the gimmick of the doors works much less well than a similar strategy in The Underground Railroad. It looks to me tat Hamid simply did not want to get into the hear and heartache of getting his characters from place to place. The intermixture of other characters not discernibly linked to the plot did not work at all.

Exit West is perhaps the most relevant and poignant book I've read so far this year. The story explores a world of disappearing borders– open doors whisking away all who step through their frame to places all across the world. Though the novel primarily follows Saeed and Nadia, two migrants from a country breaking down under war's brutal oppression, short passages allude to the journeys of natives and migrants alike.

Migration in today's world is defined by one's ability to cross a border, but in Mohsin Hamid's world of Exit West, it's not. How do governments and citizens react to floods of migrants popping up across their city unchecked? What pushes somebody through an open door and why do they stay? No question is left unexplored and though the novel is only 230 pages, the story's pace–sometimes long and sprawling across pages, sometimes jumping through time– represents the internal clock of the characters. Omniscient insights into every character's thoughts shed light on the significance of small, mundane, yet important moments.

There's a moment when one of our refugees takes a shower after weeks living in sweat, mud, and rain. The character indulges in the experience, noting that "what she was doing, what she had just done, was for her not about frivolity, it was about the essential, about being human, living as a human being, reminding oneself of what one was, and so it mattered, and if necessary was worth a fight." The thoughts revealed are sometimes rash and raw, sometimes premeditated and profound, but no word makes it's way onto the page without meaning.

Hamid's writing is poetic and wise. The narrator weaves a story through meandering yet perceptive sentences that seem to last for pages and pages. No more than a minute passed while reading that I wasn't searching for a pencil to underline a particularly insightful or important passage. There was one particular scene towards the beginning of the novel, when the situation in Saeed and Nadia's country becomes more dire and the pair check every moment for a door to arrive and take them away, where I fell in love with this author's style.

Hamid writes "each of their doors, regarded thus with a twinge of irrational possibility, became particularly animate as well, an object with a subtle power mock, to mock the desires of those who desired to go far away, whispering silently from its door frame that such dreams were the dreams of fools".

The novel is brimming with passages just as universal and profound.

Not only is this book a wonderful glance into a world flush with free migration that feels hauntingly realistic and relevant, it is also a realistic story about relationships, especially those bred in trauma. Though the story is by no means a romance, Saeed and Nadia's relationship plays an important role in understanding the impact of the events. Nadia has become one of my favorite female characters and she brought to light the importance of being strong and independent even when it seems one's safest bet to stay by someone's side.

A new novel on a burning subject. Refugees, mass migration. Realism, dystopia, utopia, science fiction, magical realism, love story, estrangement story.... up to you what you see here. Master piece, sloppy work.
Life in some places becomes unbearable. People have no normal life anymore. They look for an exit. We accompany a young modern couple in an unnamed Western Asian metropolis. It is near the sea, which would only apply to Karachi, but the conditions there are certainly not on the horror level described here. Maybe not yet?
Saeed and Nadia have only just met, are not yet married. He lives with his parents, she lives alone. They are both professionals in the modern world. Advertising and insurance. Both spend much of their time in cyber space. But the world collapses. Their employers shut down. The internet dies. She moves in with him and his father, after his mother is killed by a stray bullet. What can the future be? There is none. Exit is the only hope.

The author is a Pakistani who spent half of his life in the U.K. and US. His previous Reluctant Fundamentalist was a wonderful novel. A film version was unfortunately not quite adequate.
The chapters set in the dying city have a haunting, realistic beauty, though, of course, I do not truly have own knowledge of such a reality myself. One assumes that the author doesn't either. Later in the book I will begin to wonder if this realism is actually dystopia. Am I trapped by my own worst perceptions? Is Hamid playing with us?

The narration of the following movements to other places is abstaining from any pretense of realism. The author avoids the logistics of the refugee streams and business. That may be wise, due to the size of that issue. Adequate coverage would have blown this book out of proportion.

The couple first moves to a Greek island, which is clearly just a holding position, if not a dead end. Then onward to London. By now, the novel gives up on pretending realism and turns openly into dystopia. Immigrants pour in by the thousands, occupy buildings, fight with 'native' gangs. It reads a bit like a page from nationalist/populist propaganda against open doors. Miraculously, a workable approach seems to have been found for London. Mass settlements in the 'halo' of London, via food for work programs, a precarious temporary peace.
Our couple makes it out of there, to America, because conditions have stifled their relationship, which they hope to rebuild. They end up, as far as the story goes, in a shanty town above San Francisco.
We are all migrants through time.

In this book there is love. Handled delicately, an exploration of how a love formed in catastrophy makes every tenderness suspect later on. Did I only love you in that temporary version of my world? Is it true that without crisis you do not see the me I am at all?

Exit West has a way of tumbling you forward without ever leaving you fully upside down. I was frustrated at first by the disregard for punctuation—by the constant flow of run-ons. But the style grew on me, and so did the two main characters.

Especially Nadia, who rides a motorcycle and needs no one. We watch her autonomy in conflict with the tenderness of romantic love. She is as a woman whose fire is stoked by whatever fierceness she finds around her. Love is thus a struggle, a tender thing for which she has little patience.

So we watch her grapple, since love has its own sort of fire, one prone to flashes, but also prone to turn to ash by morning.

Nadia and Saeed are swimming through an impossible chasm somehow made possible, and the language mirrors that. They move through dark doors like the reader moves through the run on sentences. We all learned not to use run-ons, but that was before we understood the rules enough to break them.

Saeed loves Nadia but may not understand what it is he is really loving. Neither talks about it, for fear of what the words might send unraveling.

In all of this we readers tumble, run-on or carry-on sentences till the end, with just enough periods along the way to ground us before we’re off again.

Read it, it will move you. It will have you questioning what it means to belong and to love.

Good afternoon all –

This is book review 10/48 for the year – 8/24 for fiction; 2/24 for non-fiction. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!

Title: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Genre: Literary fiction

Book in a nutshell without spoilers:

This book centers around the changing relationship of a man and woman who flee their embattled country. The author explores what it is like to be a refugee even in one's own country and then beyond. I liked how the author was willing to tackle difficult issues like fear, resilience, guilt, death and personal growth. Overall this book was an interesting read!

Peace, blessings and happy reading! Until next time… CM

Mohsin Hamid spins a magically realistic parable of destruction and reconstruction that personalizes the tragedy of the ideologically-driven violence of our times. In an unnamed country in an era not too far removed from our own, two people, Nadia and Saeed, are caught in the same dangerous vortex and become secret lovers. They find a way out but not an answer, since the problems of their native country have become the problems of the whole world. There can be no happy ending. Yet people are people, and their instinct is to build community. As in his previous books, Hamid’s story-telling is expert and his characters instantly become your friends. Line by line, “Exit West” is a riveting thriller, winding up striking a credible balance between hope and nihilism.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Book Review)
TLDR : Mixed bag of magical experiences in a simple story. 3/5
Review
I picked up Exit West (nominated for Booker Prize 2017) by Mohsin Hamid (a Pakistani author of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" fame) because it seemed as if it had a unique story.
The book is an easy read (I finished it in 4 hours) and the prose is quite simple and the authors style is also a little bit lyrical with large paragraphs full of a dozen commas. (There seems to another novel Solar bones also nominated for Booker 2017 that is just a single sentence long).
The book is about a modern non devout Muslim girl Nadia and a Saeed her lover as they leave their city which has come under the grip of militancy through magical doors. The magical doors transport them as refugees to Greece, London and finally USA (maybe farther and farther down West). In each place, they face a unique set of challenges in society as they struggle to eke out their existence. The story is loosely allegorical as it deals with the problems between the natives of the country and the sudden influx of refugees from all around the world threatening the composition of society. Interspersed within the main story are brief vignettes of other stories revolving around how these doors open up possibilities of other humans to form other relationships without the constraints of space or time.
Through these stories, the author sheds light on the refugee crisis and the greater humanity which binds the world together.
Although, I was not gripped by the book and nor is it a page turner I did gain a greater sensitivity of the migrant experience. As I watch my own city transform in a decade to something else, I myself as the author says feel like a migrant in my own country.

I guess I'm the odd man out who thought this was boring and pointless. Let's follow the lives of two people who are sort of fond of each other but not really. Reading this is like watching a leaf float on a lake...mildly interesting but not really worth telling anyone about.

Every once in awhile I read a book that really doesn't say anything, doesn't give you much detail and really doesn't have a story to tell. This is one of those books. I kept waiting for some event to happen or to get more of a detailed story but that never happened. It really is just a boring story about 2 people that meet, kind of fall in love, leave their homeland and try to find a safe place to live in the world. Boring!

Magical. Mysterious. Very like life itself, mirroring today's news, a story woven around the arc of an intimate relationship and its numerous passages, often through stressful, dangerous circumstances, with an interpolated fantasy element that worked just fine for me, a novel that, like the great Gauguin painting, asks "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" Hamid's short book, like his other brief, throughtful novels that bring us closer to South Asian and/or Islamic society and culture, takes up, in snippets, timeless, colossal issues of being and identity as well as stimulates reflection on one's own biography.

The lack of emotions in this dystopian novel made it hard for me to care about the characters.While the theme is of current import, i did not care for the gimmicky plot choice the author made. I chose not to finish this book.

I'm a fan of this author and I have liked his other works. But the concept of magical doors in a war torn country magically taking you to the peaceful west is just stupid. Furthermore, either Mr. Hamid is in the middle of a love affair with run-on sentences, or he has forgotten the difference between commas and periods. I read the book cover to cover twice. The 2nd read was even more terrible than the first.

If you like beautiful, poetic writing about a fairly ugly time then you'll love this book. I am not a fan of this type of writing style at all which I wasn't aware of before I began reading. With that being said the story itself was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end.
The story is told in mostly narration with really long sentences that sometimes I had to read more than once to understand what was happening. There is very little dialogue between characters and tons of descriptions.
Not my preferred style of book to read and had I known probably would not have read this book. If you enjoy a less conventional writing style then you will probably enjoy this book as the story is captivating.

I've very much enjoyed two of Hamid's previous novels and was looking forward to another excellent read. For the first half of the book I was not disappointed, as the fate of two young people in an unnamed Muslim city as their civilized life collapses under the weight of a fundamentalist insurgency was gripping. But this hyper-realistic portrayal suddenly morphs into an allegorical fable about the migrations of the world's uprooted peoples,the resistance of the West to these migrations, and the strains such uprooting places on human relationships. The characters for me became little more than symbols, not real people, and as such I stopped caring about them or the book in general. Very disappointing.

This was such a satisfying, quick read. The language is lovely. It strikes a balance between concise, conversational and lyrical that makes you want to read out loud. I loved the characters, and I found the story compelling.

I know this story feels particularly relevant today, but what struck me was how the almost vague storytelling made these people's lives feel timeless and real. There wasn't a big climax that made you break down, but there were scenes throughout that just make you feel profound empathy for these people and humanity.

I loved this book. I'm already planning my next reread.

I found this book to be intriguing. I could feel somewhat how it must have been to be a person living in such a war torn home town. It was just two persons lives in a new and horrifying situation, and how they handled it. I don't know how bad a situation has to be to do what they did; pay money to go thru a make believe door to an unknown place, if not death. It was what they choose to do at that time. The writing style is what it is; the story is FICTION. It needn' be politically correct or perfect English style writing. I felt the characters were well developed, especially Hamid.

This has easily become one of my favorite books of all time, and I think it's going to be a book that sticks with me for a long time. I want to have extra copies of this on my person at all times so that I can give it out to people and make them read it. This is an incredibly succinct and powerful story that shows the life of two immigrants who are trying to escape their war-torn home country. This would have been fantastic as just that, but the magical realism that's added through these doors that lead to places around the world really puts it over the edge for me. The magical realism is so well done and innovative, and I'm completely in love with it because it also appeals to my adoration of portal fantasy.

Additionally, Mohsin Hamid narrates the audiobook, and he does a fantastic job of it. Because it's his book, he tells it perfectly, and it feels like he's sitting me down and telling me the story of Nadia and Saeed.

This book started so well that I was certain I was reading a classic. By its early middle, as the hero and heroine are preparing to leave their war ravaged city, I was mesmerized. Hamid’s writing style, full of exquisite run-on sentences, was resonating for me. A paragraph describing a father letting his son go was so superbly written that I simply stopped to reflect and admire it. But then... the book went seriously off the rails. Just a hot mess. And as I re-read the book cover, it occurred to me that the publisher may have thought the same thing, as the portion of the story expansively teased was the book’s first half; the second half was euphamised into some generic plurality. And appropriately so. I finished the book because I started it, but the last 80 pages were tedious, at times bordering on the absurd.

Saeed and Nadia first meet in an unnamed country and we understand them to be Muslims. However, their country is war-torn and dangerous, and the couple, though not married, decide to leave for a better place. Saeed's father refuses to leave his homeland, where his wife is buried, but the young couple decides to hire someone to help them flee. Very effectively, the author's use of mystical realism moves the plot with the couple stepping through doors in search of safety and freedom. With each successive door and place, though, Saeed's and Nadia's relationship changes. What is blatant is the xenophobia wherever the refuges go and the struggles the couple must endure. Poignant.

I love this book. So beautifully written, fantasy but not explicit. I love the door concept, we don't need the gory details of immigration where nobody wants you but you have to go somewhere or you will die. The lifecycle of Saed and Nadia love story is poignant and hopeful. They both are decent and honorable people even in the face of tragedy. They are the people I hope I can be and I hope my children can be. There are so many thought provoking passages. Mohsin Hamid is a literary genius. Read this just for the beautiful use of language to express philosophy and feelings.

This was a VERY unique book written in a VERY unique format. I enjoyed the formatting very much as it really changed it up a lot. Very creative.

The premise of the book is really good and somewhat science-fictiony. It is really hard to put this novel in just ONE category. I love when books are like that!!

The writer has a very nice way with words, but I feel that the book got a little bogged down about 2/3 of the way through and was tough to read in that area, but then it pulled through.

This is NOT a feel-good, easy beach read for Spring break - it is a make you think book. Definitely a recommend!!

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid, author; read by Mohsin Hamid
This brief novel is read in a clinical, almost dead-pan voice, that merely states the facts while offering precise descriptions with simple, incredibly descriptive and detailed prose. In spare words, the author paints a picture of a love story, an immigrant story, a survival story, a story about racial issues, a story of hope, as he exposes the raw version of life for the people of varied cultures, backgrounds, religions, and ethnic groups as they try to find peace, freedom and happiness in a place without revolution, repression and violence.
One of the things that makes the novel stand out is its use of a narrative that employs no wasted words. Yet, the story is eloquent, interesting and informative. It takes place in a world, undefined exactly, that is going through the throes of revolution and is coming slowly under the rule of extremists. There are beheadings and bombings that are graphically described, although the detached voice of the author makes them largely lack the ugliness, and simply become a part of the recitation of an event, from which we are distanced.
This book is the love story of Saeed and Nadia. At first, when we meet them, Nadia wears a long flowing robe as a protective garment (burka), to prevent the advances of men, but she does not pray. Saeed prays only about once a day. He is attached to his family. She is estranged from hers after leaving home against their wishes. They share their dreams of travel and their love blossoms in a time and place that is unknown, but it is a place that is becoming more and more radicalized with resultant beheadings and bombings. Although the term Muslim is not used, it appears to hint that they are of that faith. The violent behavior of the radicalized is spreading, causing fear and desperation for many. As the obstacles they face increase, they search for an escape, and as the times become more dangerous, they flee together through a magical doorway that leads them to freedom. Their religious beliefs seem almost happenstance, but these beliefs adjust as time passes, to the changing attitudes and rules of the times and varied places in which they arrive through the many doors they enter.
The author employs a bit of magical realism into the main body of the story, when at unexpected places in the narrative, he inserts the random experiences of previously unknown characters, as they escape through random doors and arrive in random places around the globe, each with a different migrant experience. These characters appear almost suddenly when they, and the main characters, are offered exit routes through doors that originate in one geographic locale, and inexplicably end in another. Upon crossing the threshold, they hope to find themselves in another place, one that is hopefully safer, welcoming, and offers greater opportunity.
The doors seem to be a symbol of the migrant experience, regardless of where his/her journey leads. Wherever he/she winds up, they struggle and the adjustment is difficult. The doors open and close, into different regions of the globe; they found themselves on a Greek Island, in England, Austria, Australia, Japan, Brazil Amsterdam, and the United States where they encountered other refugees who were not unlike themselves and refugees who were far different, in all ways. In some places, they were more readily accepted, in some more readily rejected. Each place seemed to have a different attitude toward them. In some, they were allowed to assimilate and participate in society, with some restrictions. In others they were ostracized. Still, even though many doors that were once open were soon barred to them, others always became available; they could not be stopped because new doors continued to appear.
As the story progresses, the plight of those escaping and the plight of those forced to receive them was graphically depicted as the results of these massive movements of people caused disruption, resentment and, even, once again, violence. As the fear, each had of the other, bubbled to the surface and as the rotten apples of the bunch gained notoriety, conflicts often occurred. The effects of the stress, on all involved, was grievous. Some relationships could not withstand the pressure, although some did thrive. To prevent the influx of the feared refugees, many methods were tried. The refugees were attacked, starved, cut off from power and water, and were largely unprotected. Still, those who were stalwart and law-abiding formed their own communities, began to share what they had with each other regardless of their different backgrounds, and soon, by example, were accepted, or at least, they were not defeated. Eventually, a sort of relationship evolved between the communities of the migrants and the residents, and they learned to live with each other and the migrants became productive members of the society. Water and power returned to their districts, and life became tolerable again.
Carefully, with subtlety and innuendo, he painted a clear picture of the immigrant experience and analyzed the reasons for its success and/or failure. Some immigrants were desperate, some were rough; some were simply exhausted from their constant effort to escape from their poverty, hopelessness and the heavy hand of their government. The reception they received from strangers who were forced to integrate them into their society was often unwelcoming. They had to be strong, or they would be beaten by those who were stronger, in all avenues of life. Often, they even preyed upon each other.
The characters were caught between the past and the future, and their present was very difficult. Still they managed to create little democratic neighborhoods so they could survive, if not thrive. As the book moved on, the reader is placed a half a century later. The world had changed and the two characters, who had separated years before, reunited and once again, spoke of their former dreams and future possibilities, rekindling their affection for each other, if not their passion.
The author seemed to be making a political statement of sorts about how immigrants are received and how their treatment affects relationships and communities. I did not feel that he presented both sides of the issue equally, because he did not highlight the dangers they brought with them, to innocent victims, from their frustration, different cultural attitudes and their ideas about what constituted acceptable behavior, as well as their assumption of the civil rights they expected to be granted to them. He seemed to favor the immigrant point of view and to believe and only truly present, the idea that If they were welcomed, they would often become productive members of the community, contributing in all sorts of positive ways as they worked hard and prospered. If rejected, and forced to live in substandard conditions, they were then forced to do what was necessary to survive and sometimes, that was not always lawful or positive behavior. I was not sure if he accepted these transgressions. In the future, he seemed to present the view that disparate groups, disparate cultures, disparate languages, disparate heritages, ethnicities and sexual proclivities would all be accepted more kindly. As they learned to understand each other, immigrant neighborhoods would grow up and became part of society.
I believe that the book would be better in print, as I had to listen to various parts over and over because of the monotony of the presentation, which seemed necessary for the way the story was told, but it was difficult to remain constantly engaged. This novel will lead to the reader’s thoughtful examination of the immigrant issue, a current problem in today’s society.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is a profoundly moving novel that imagines a future shaped by accelerating human migration. The story follows two refugees whose intertwined lives reveal many of the forces already at work in the world today. Hamid illuminates the hearts and minds of the protagonists with clear-eyed empathy and his prose is sprinkled with insights that stuck with me long after reaching the end. Engaging, philosophical, and full of pain and wonder, this is speculative fiction at its best.

Starting in an unnamed country Saeed and Nadia are two young adults that meet and fall in love. But quickly, tragedy strikes as the landscape of their country is torn through war and violence. The two must flee to safety through doors that lead them to other lands in the hopes of finding refuge. You follow their journey as they grow and face the very real struggles of a people displaced from their homes.
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I absolutely loved this book. From the beautiful writing (think Rilke) to the symbolism of doorways and houses as a journey to seek asylum - this book is so relevant to what is happening in today's world.
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I took off one star because I think the pacing near the end of the book got a little slow. I found myself anxious to finish. But overall a wonderfully beautiful book!!!

Basically, this book takes place in a country where civil war is about to break out and there are rumors of these doors. The doors appear randomly and take those who walk through them somewhere else. We mainly follow Saeed and Nadia, but the book also shows us snippets of other people's journeys through the doors. Some have good experiences and some have not so good experiences. 

This book seems to be marketed as a sort of love story in troubled times and I feel like it is and isn't. Saeed and Nadia do meet and fall in love, or something like it, and this book is about them, but it's about their journey with these doors that take you from one place to another, such that it isn't really about them at all. However, one of the aspects of their relationship that I did like is that it felt real. This isn't one of those books where the couple falls in love in desperate times and they are happy with each other while the world around them falls apart. It felt realistic and raw. I particularly liked this line, "She was uncertain what to do to disarm the cycles of annoyance they seemed to be entering into with one another, since once begun such cycles are difficult to break, in fact the opposite, as if each makes the threshold for irritation next time a bit lower, as is the case with certain allergies." 

Mostly, I think that this book is a really excellent to read because of it's reflection on the human experience and the experience of refugees. I really enjoyed this book, but I did ultimately rate it a 4 because of the ending. 

Everyone loves this novel for the wrong reasons. And if they hate this novel, you can bet that it's also for the wrong reasons. The prose has this odd quality of being both generic and overly-detailed. The characters aren't dialed in correctly: they're too "flat" to emotionally invest in, and they're too "round" to be working as stand-ins for archetypes. The management of information is bad, especially considering that it's a third-person, omniscient narrator. (What exactly is the justification for concealing the "portal doors" from the readers until page 90?) If the author is trying to make a post-modern commentary on "magical" or "story-book" narrators, then that needs to be a little more clear. A lot of people, it seems, are evaluating this novel based on its politics. It's likely provoking that reaction because it's quite straight-forward and self-serious. It has no sense of humor or lightness. If you love it for the politics, that's confirmation bias––and besides, that's not the point of literature. If you hate it for the politics, you're probably some wacko, anti-immigrant reader. The fact is this book is just fine. It certainly doesn't deserve all the praise it gets, but it doesn't deserve all the hate either. If you like fantastical fiction, and if you like novels with a political slant, you'll probably like this book.

This is a beautifully written, inventive and thought provoking book about life in a war zone and then life as a migrant and how difficult yet necessary it is to try i some way to keep some vestiges of a normal life while ensuring extreme hardship. Similar to The Underground Railroad, the characters move from place to place through magic doors -- but don't let the surrealism detract you from the harsh realities civilians face during war. I give this four stars not five because I felt the book fizzled toward the end. The author is fast becoming one of my favorites and I also recommend the very funny How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.

I really enjoyed the development of the two main characters from beginning to end. I would give 5 stars for the love story. The terror of living in such a city as they were is absolutely gut wrenching. What lost me was the sudden switch from "this is what currently real life refugees are facing" to "futuristic British conflict." Also, the little bits at the end of each chapter of other people's lives in other countries didn't make any sense to me.. Perhaps I'm not intellectually savvy enough to understand the depth! :) Looking for a good and quick love story and willing to skip/skim some? This may be the book for you!

Truly beautiful writing is hard to pull off, and this novel never quite gets there, even though it is very obviously trying. On the positive side, it remains a page turner and goes quite quickly. It's never as emotional as the topic could be, and it lacks a good climax, and nothing really pulls together the disparate stories that are weaved in throughout the book. Overall I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it.

Hamid employs a simple but brilliant plot device for focusing his novel on the human essence of migration crises rather than on the logistics of transportation. It reads smoothly, though I found myself rereading whole paragraphs aloud to savor again. If you appreciate Eliot's Middlemarch, you may enjoy this contemporary attempt to weave into words the texture of the world today's refugees face; if you feel guilty about never having read Middlemarch, read this one--in terms of providing a vision of life as otherwise experienced, it too may become a (shorter) must read for those of us who want to know what being human can feel like.

This book was really weird. The author must have been high when he wrote this novel. I suppose its the type of writing which uses symbolism with the description of the doors. I just didn't quite get it. I know literary buffs will disagree and scorn me for not understanding a fine novel such as this. Also there were too many paragraphs which took us away from the main characters like the one with the elderly and wrinkled man. What was that all about? Maybe if I was high on something, I might have enjoyed it better, but for me it just fell flat.

It is a wonderful novel. beautifully written, it just draw you in right from the beginning, gets you involved both emotionally and intellectually. One of the greatest novels I have ever read!! Hamid not only an amazing novelist, but also an involved citizen of the 21 century. You just can't miss this novel!

This book was strange. The idea of the doors does achieve Hamid's purpose of excluding the travel time in the refugee themed books. However, the doors completely change the vibe of the book. The doors change the book from seeming plausible to being not at all plausible. This has changed the way that I think about this book, the doors make the book less relatable and this makes the reader not feel as connected to the characters in the book. Overall the book is a rather good book maybe not the 10 best book review that it claims to.

Moshin Hamid does the hardest and most beautiful of things: he writes about dystopian situations while celebrating tenderness and moments of great beauty. The lovely, observant, often sad but also hopeful story of a pair of lovers and migrants becomes a window, not on the alien, the other, but on ourselves, and in that shared humanity lies the promise that remains in these times of anger and scapegoating. This is an important novel and a major contribution to the literature and politics of compassion.

Given there are so many indulgent, bad novels published now, this one is a bit better. But while topic of the story is good, those who give awards should look at how the novel was written. There is almost no dialog, the plot development is plodding, and the description often like a shaky camera going all over the place with out real focus. When there is dialog the story sings, but there is so little of it. Rather than tell us what the characters think, which is too often the diary current style, it is a richer novel that lets the characters speak for themselves, so we readers can wonder about their thoughts and motivations. Had this book not dealt with the refuge crisis, I doubt it would receive award nominations. It is not that good.

Hamid's prose makes the book. Take this sentence for instance, "...but that is the way of things, for when we migrate we murder from our lives those we leave behind". Such sentences say so much and evoke so much feeling, eliminating the need for explicitly emotional descriptions. The novel allows readers to gain greater understanding and empathy for refugees. As a result, this novel has come at the right time when there seems to be more political opposition to immigrants and refugees. The elements of magical realism was also quite enjoyable: the magic doors that allow Saeed and Nadia to jump from country to county, and the overall ambiguous nature of time.

thinking about Exit West:

first, i want to be clear about what my expectations were going into this novel. first, i saw exit west recommended by other (east coast) writers on twitter. then, i saw it featured at a local library with an "as heard on KQED!" placard. finally, i heard that its description of marin was really worthwhile and kind of incisive. so i had this idea that Exit West was somehow about marin. (after all, we are the westmost.)

Exit West is not about marin. that is not a bad thing.

here is that Exit West is about:
- Nadia and Saeed, plus stories about other people
- the different ways people connect with each other in the modern world (often instantaneously) and disconnect as well (more often, more gradually)
- different iterations of mundanity
- the impossibility of mundanity as space and time change and change and change
- what change looks like, and the patterns that re-emerge
- other things emerge as well

i read a digital copy (although-- let's be real-- physical copy = eminently instagrammable. that cover art!) and was surprised by how short Exit West was, or how quick to read. i took screenshots of many pages and passages. the book reminded me a bit (just a bit) of Invisible Cities. i enjoyed it immensely and plan to revisit.

I enjoyed the clarity of the language in this book, but the portals the characters breeze through as refugees were unsettling to me. I can’t say I didn’t like this book because I enjoyed the storyline, however I can’t say it was highly recommended either.

EXIT WEST is a tale told on two levels. On a superficial level is the story of a young couple forced to migrate from their war torn homeland. On a more serious and perceptive level is the story of immigrants and the reception and difficulties they encounter in different countries. Don't let the superficial story make you immune to the truths being told. This isn't a novel you read; this is a novel you absorb...

This is a book that is written for world current events. What happens when the immigrants seem to take over the world…moving to countries and creating a new lifestyle for the world. I found it a creepy book, yet I couldn’t put it down. This book brings up as many questions as answers. If you are a member of a book club and want a thought-provoking book I recommend this. What if…..

I found this an extraordinary book; really remarkable. Hamid writes beautifully--the sort of writing that makes me want to read very slowly and savor each phrase. He writes creatively, with compelling twists and turns of phrase and painting lush, detailed images. He also tells an incredibly powerful story, one that is simultaneously remarkable and also everyday life, albeit in a set of circumstances few of us in the USA have truly grasped. I learned a great deal from reading this incredibly thoughtful, sensitive book. What a treasure.

Imaginative story that is well written. I’m not a fan of magical realism so I was skeptical when I heard there were secret doors that magically suck people to distant lands. So there is that element but it represents just a small (albeit important) part of the book. The story and characters are engrossing. It’s a relatively short book and easy read. Great as a book club book because there’s a lot to talk about.

On the 2017 Booker Prize long list. This novel about two young lovers in an unnamed city in a country torn by civil war is lucidly written but is otherwise uninteresting. The author relies on the curious device of a mysterious set of doors through which individuals move from country to country. The two lovers go to Greece, England, and the United States through these doors, joining other immigrants along the way. It is not clear whether the doors are intended to be allegorical, magical realism, science fiction, fantasy, or simply shorthand for the usual channels of immigration. Other characters appear in brief vignettes, although their purpose is not clear. There are passages that highlight the ways that war disrupts everyday life and there are passages that capture the gruesomeness of such conflicts, but ultimately little is done to develop the main characters or to make us care for them.

I enjoyed this book- it was well written and conveys the feeling of another world and another culture, as well as the last days of peace before society collapses. The door device allowed me to focus on the characters instead of the journey, although I really didn’t get the little vignettes about other people.

Maybe I am not smart or cool enough for this book. While there were some excellent passages, mostly I kept wondering when this book was going to start. The way long, paragraph size sentences drove me crazy. I would not recommend this book to many people.

I was shocked by the simple and straightforward writing of this book. The Emotions felt so raw and relatable but they were immediately recognizable. I found the characters to be very relatable, and there different paths for dealing with their worlds in change. Enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would and I would recommend that everyone read it.

This book makes you think, but all under the guise of an easy to read tumultuous love story. It's the kind of book that makes you stop and think. I finished it about an hour ago and I'm still lost in thought, so much so that I can't describe it adequately...all I can say is READ IT!

What a disappointment! I’m not sure how this book is so highly rated. I found it to be quite boring and had to skim through paragraphs at a time. There were many random scenes in the book of people going in and out of doors that I thought would tie together in the end but they didn’t... the characters weren’t particularly interesting either. It certainly did humanize the journey of the displaced people of war torn countries but it also seemed to end with our current civilization reduced to shanties and communes... and everyone is okay with that. Hmm...I’m not going to jump on the politically correct band wagon on this one.

This is a remarkable book. The relationship between the two main characters is complex and makes a good story on its own. But it's the broader context, a world in which migration has swamped the national borders of western nations, that conjures up a future that may not be western democracies' future today, but is easily imaginable as what the world will look like in 20 or 30 years. Hamid has written a quiet, almost elegiac book about completely disquieting events. Well worth reading and reflecting on it as it lingers long after the last page.

Great writer, and I am impressed with his ability to capture the pain of being uprooted, among other things. Prose after prose, they roll into each other like notes to music, creating poetry from suffering, hope from disaster. It took me just a few hours to finish, and I wish there was more. I highly recommend it.

A magical book that appears to have metaphysical aspects which add to its setting and might be the worlds future.
It combines good writing and lyrical text to large concepts like humanity, love and connection in a mix that greatly appeals to what I consider magnificent literature.
This is the only book I've read by the author but will not be the last.

This book is horrible. The whole book is endless run on sentences and the story is not enjoyable or compelling in any way, shape or form. Read it for a book club, wish I hadn't. Tedious and boring.

Exit West is a stunning, exquisite novel. It is a love story, it's a magical realism story, it's an immigrant story, but it also defies all those expectations in the process. The characters in this novel are--if not likable--dynamic and real and so, so achingly human. In addition, Hamid's writing is lyrical and riveting. I read Exit West in one sitting in two hours. I was glued to the page.

In what West Asian country and city had Nadia and Saeed grown up, met, experienced the destruction of their city, and eventually emigrated through a door to their first of several places of refuge?
Yes, like Colson Whitehead's device of an actual magic Underground Railroad, in his recent Pulitzer Prize winning novel of that name, Mohsin Hamid devised magic doors through which Nadia and Saeed open and pass through to start fresh in less corrupt or confining environments.

I had high expectations for this book and waited several weeks for it. Unfortunately, reading it is a torture. The endless run-on sentences get on my nerves. Perhaps, it is some new & chic writing style but it is not for me. I don't think I will finish the book.

I picked this book up because I like dystopia. And as I began reading, the author's style bothered me, the sentences were so... lacking in confidence. But then I found that I could not put the book down. The relationship between the characters was refreshing... and disturbing. The sentences and writing style created a poetry, and as the book came to an end, I yearned for more.

As both a child of immigrants and an immigration attorney, and a lover of dystopian novels, this book lent a very interesting perspective to the issue of increasing globalization. And of course, the blatant problems of tackling the immigration issue in America and refugees in Europe.

The author took this altogether, added an element of fantasy and short stories and created a very enjoyable short read.

This is a terribly confusing book. Such a waste of time and money. So many things go unexplained you just left to guess what On earth the author is writing about. My daughter has to read it for a college class. Says her professor just skipps over the confusing parts. Can’t do that for long though because eventually it simply makes no sense.

I was underwhelmed by this novel. I felt the writing lacked tension. I didn't form any meaningful bond to either of the two main characters. I had to push to finish the last two chapters. I think perhaps this may have been a better short story.

David's writing has a lyrical nature. I like reading his books -- like Moth Smoke -- just because of the way he writes and the language. I thought Exit West was one kind of story but then the doors appeared. Not what I expected. And probably not everyone's cup of tea. But it's different and I liked it.

Beautiful, lucid love story amidst the ashes of middle eastern civil war....The first half -- in country -- was really terrific. The second half was an interesting mix of the emigrant story and even a little magic realism...but not nearly so compelling.

Amazing book. Such beautiful writing. So many passages that I reread several times, and that brought tears to my eyes - like a gut punch. The author so profoundly and perfectly captured the state of transience.

Exit West received such astonishing reviews that I was prepared for a literary experience that never came. Sorry. I am not one for fantasies. If this is anything more than a fantasy, it escaped me.

Edmund Nichols

The journey of Nadia and Saeed is allegorical and nostalgic without being overly sentimental. The door through which they pass are the doors of the stages of our lives every bit as much as the doors we pass through literally every day. Beautiful.

I thought this book was going to be about the immigrant experience and that I would not find myself in its pages but as the author points out, "we are all migrants through time" and the relationship between the two main characters, which for me was the entire story, was a profound look at the influences on a couple over time. Love this book.

In this mystical novel, immigrants travel between cities through portals that appear in doorways. While the commentary on current immigration issues is not so subtle, the book manages to rise above the politics and tell a touching story of love and loss in the near future.

A wonderful love story settle in a world almost like ours, where special doors bring you around the world and are used by refugees to go away from war lands. As usual Hamid is able to convey the biggest feeling with the simplest words and this time also he didn't disappointed me and remains one of my favorite author.

Una meravigliosa storia d'amore che accade in un modo quasi come il nostro, dove porte speciali ti possono portare in altri posti del mondo, che vengono usate dai rifugiati per scappare dalla guerra. Come al solito Hamid riesce a veicolare i sentimenti piú intensi con le parole piú semplici e anche stavolta non mi ha deluso e resta uno dei miei autori preferiti.

Transforms and dissolves boundaries, connecting experience, imagination and shared humanity. Focusing on a small story set in a vast world, our empathy flowers, terrified and comforted at once and forever altered.

This is the book that brings home the plight of refugees told with compassion but strong language. It is hard to put down and not be affected by what you read considering the urgent refugees crisis that is engulfing the world these days. Highly recommended.

I'm so glad I read Exit West: A Novel with only knowing that it was on a zillion top ten lists.
I borrowed this book from the library.

I will be honest , I didn't understand this book . This was above my intellectual level, I am sure.
That being said I don't want to slam the author , therefore I am giving this book a compassionate 3 stars .

It is so clear that the lives of refugees are miserable but here comes a fairy tale reimagining the diaspora as a mystical adventure, a chance to reinvent life in the worlds most coveted spots. Ingenious.

Haunting, sensitive novel about normal people caught in a civil war -- unnamed place that could be Mosul now, Beyrouth then or so many other places -- who escape as refugees. Still, an intimate novel, zen-like writing.

This book is not worth reading. There are no wizards. I thought that there would be wizards. It is boring and a love story. Summary: The book is lacking qualities that are essential among other great books like Harry Potter. Some of these qualities that are missing are wizards, dementors, Hagrid, Basilisks, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledor, Voldemort, Quidditch, Dragons, magic wands. <(no bueno). A quote from this book that proves my point is: "Nadia again sat by their tent." pg. 109 If Nadia was a witch, she would be able to make a tent that is big enough to stand or even summersault in. It is worse than Harry Potter with no witches or wizards. Picture Harry Potter with no magic and it is just a highschool story. That would still be better than this. Mohsin Hamid: 0 . Me: 1. Were done here. (mic drop).

HIGHLY recommend this read. Deeply moving and an instant connection is formed between reader and two main characters - Nadia and Saeed. If you've been overwhelmed or impassive to news headlines of refugees and migrants, you must pick this book up. A truly personal insight into how one minute you're going about your every day to the next covering windows with mattresses to protect yourself from shattered glass and bullets. Humans are the most resilient beings of them all.

With this book, Hamid is at the top of his game.
This is a story for our times, focused not on the mechanics or high-politics of it all, but on the fundamental ways in which love and life are changed and re-examined when our homes and freedoms are impinged.
Exit West wakes you up, gently yes, but definitely, to injustice that we are all in danger of watching from the sidelines, as if in a dream.

I won't give up on Moshin Hamid, but this is an uncharacteristically weak work. The writing style uses simple language in oddly constructed and disjointed sentences and, with the exception of the very late part of the book, there is no sense that the author is really engaged with the story. It seems to have been a polished short story that was expanded to a book that Hamid was not really ready to write.

What a wonderful book. Author Hamid has a unique literary style that is utterly engaging. He writes about life in an unflinching yet poetic way. His characters are so real, I was sorry when this book came to its end and I had to leave Nadia and Saaed on the page. This was an utterly engrossing tale.

A book that reads a bit like a poem, has some kernels of ideas that kind of blossom into something more than what is on the page. It dystopian in a way that haunts you, I don’t know how another reader would experience this, so much of this work depends on what you bring to the story.

I'm not a fan of extended run-on descriptive sentences. Additionally this story didn't really add much for me in my view of the world. On the other hand the 2 main characters are pretty well developed.

Best book of 2017 - relevant and current, but magical at the sameness time. This story of the journey of two refugees starts with them living the most ordinary of lives. As their city collapses around them they flee, growing together and then falling apart as they make their ways to a new life in the west

Great read. Unusual and humane, beautiful, troubling and surprising. Highly recommend. The idea of doors allowing refugees to jump from place to place seems an odd choice, but serves the story very well.

It was strange that the first quarter of the book read like a true story but then switched to sci-fi awkwardly. Good relationship story but way too much going on. Maybe with more backstory of the doors it would be better

Awful and sadly simplistic novel lacking any depth.
The novel started of well with a love story between a young couple in a war zone and I was really hoping for an insightful novel into refugee's issues. I thought author would weigh the struggles and emotional turmoil of refugee's, their reaction to host country's political, social and cultural environment as well host country's reaction to flood of refugees, their fear, compromises ect.
Instead this was a novel written without any insight into character's emotional or psychological issues. It was more of a narration of a listless story of two people going through some magical doors and arriving miraculously new country, with almost readily available amenities.
Reading this refugee's life did not appear any harder then my life. What a deception and almost insult to these people's plight which author failed to bring out.
It was a utter waste of time for me to read this book.

Within the first 50 pages, the author describes a half-naked, sleeping woman's body in great detail as a man breaks into her room, mentions offhandedly that the main character's mom likes to take it from behind, makes his female lead a cardboard cutout of a "sexy bad girl," and includes an unresolved scene in which a group of young girls are followed by an unnamed man who says, "they seemed emotional: perhaps excited, perhaps frightened, perhaps both -- in any case, the man thought, with women it was difficult to tell." Magical realist novels on the refugee experience aren't exempt from treating their female characters like humans. Perhaps because this novel is progressive in intent and lyrically written, people aren't noticing that virtually every female character who is somewhat fleshed-out in the first 50 pages is depicted as a sexual object. Disappointed because I was looking forward to reading it, but I couldn't get through how uncomfortable it made me. Pass.

Excellent story with many symbolic provoking pieces. I loved it and was at first confused by the doors, but these are the symbols and challenges of refuges and how life sometimes goes. The storytelling is magnificent and I so enjoyed every minute of it.

At less than 250 pages, if there were an award for the ability to fully convey an idea or emotion in the fewest words, Mohsin Hamid would win it. His writing style is unique, but not cumbersome, and honestly I was in awe of his writing the whole way through. He's very creative with sentence structure, but not in a way that detracts from the story.

And the story, folks, is incredible. I fell in love with both main characters, but not as a couple. I loved them both as individuals navigating a terrifying set of circumstances, each in their own way based on their own values and personal histories. I felt like I knew well even minor characters as they appeared briefly, which speaks to Hamid's astounding economy with words. The world in which this story is set is dark, even terrifying at times, however the element of magic Hamid incorporates into his story maintains a feeling of hopefulness throughout. And the story is so relevant. As Americans (or Westerners) we have no frame of reference for the trials Nadia and Saeed face in their home, therefore reading from their point of view is very enlightening.