Exit West
Exit West is a 2017 novel by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. It is Hamid's fourth novel. The main themes of the novel are emigration and refugee problems. The novel, which can be considered fantasy or speculative fiction, is about a young couple, Saeed and Nadia, who live in an unnamed city undergoing civil war and finally have to flee, using a system of magical doors that lead to different locations around the globe. Hamid has recently emerged as a respected writer and writes Exit West during a time of much controversy over refugees and immigration. Scholars analyze Exit West for its suggestions about global politics, use of technology, and calls for better treatment of the environment. Exit West won Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2017) and Aspen Words Literary Prize (2018) and was shortlisted for a number of other awards. Background Since 2010, Hamid has emerged as an author known for writing fiction that explores alternate ways of global living and emphasizes the disadvantages of being born in a third-world country. Hamid wrote Moth Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), and then Exit West in 2017. All four stories