Exit West: A Conversation with Novelist Mohsin Hamid

September 5, 2017

Internationally acclaimed novelist Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Harcourt, 2007) and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (Riverhead Books, 2013), speaks about his newest work Exit West (Riverhead Books, 2017). Set in a world much like modern society, with some surreal twists, this timely and highly acclaimed novel explores the experience of two ordinary people, Saeed and Nadia, who become refugees when their world is suddenly upended. Their condition as migrants—facilitated, fantastically, by secret portals that whisk them away to unknown destinations—vividly evokes migration crises faced in many parts of the world, but also suggests that “migration” may be a permanent condition that all people share. The challenges these characters face, including how to negotiate their evolving relationship, require them to define and redefine their notions of love, loss, belief, and identity.

Mohsin Hamid Author, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (Harcourt, 2007) and "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" (Riverhead Books, 2013)