Three years ago, a colleague came into our office, impatient to share a book she’d just devoured. Swayed by her enthusiasm, I took her up on the offer. And I’m so glad I did. In time, that little book wound its way through our entire department, toppling us all like dominoes as we each fell in love with Mohsin Hamid’s poetic and imaginative novel Exit West.
The story centres two young lovers, Nadia and Saeed, as war descends around them. The world is a familiar but strange place, as our protagonists join legions of desperate refugees migrating via portals. Yet Exit West is neither dark nor dystopic. It is full of humanity: love, empathy and hope.
Labelled ‘instantly canonical’ by The New Yorker, Exit West is still my most readily recommended and re-visited book. Some days I’ll pick it up and flick to my favourite passages, just to briefly savour its keen insights and graceful prose.
I suspect I’ll never get tired of sharing it.
- Bec