Exit West (Mohsin Hamid)

Exit West

Mohsin Hamid

"the whole planet was on the move...

without borders nations appeared to be becoming somewhat illusionary, 

and people were questioning what role they had to play"

This novel narrates the story of Saeed and Nadia, two people that, like many others, have to leave their country which is destroyed by war.

Although Nadia wears a full-lenght black dress, she rides a motorcycle and lives alone, something that is not very common in her Muslim country. Saeed meets her in a class in university and they start going out together.

However, rebels are getting stronger and taking big areas of the cities. Electricity, food and water become scarce and they see themselves forced not to leave Saeed's house.

Soon, the legend of doors that travel in space and enable people to leave their homes and become materialise in another ones, Saeed and Nadia decide to try one of the door and their lives as refugees start.

Hamid writes that

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

The author deals with current issues such as the rights of the refugees to have  better lives, the reaction of the natives of the countries in which the people fleeing arrive and the notion of love, loyalty and courage.

An important record of the times we are living, the fate of these characters stays with readers even after they finish the book.

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