Exit West

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

Exit West follows these characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.

“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 with her.”

Exit West is a story about two people who find love in a time of war and hardship. It’s romance for the unromantic because it’s not your typical Hollywood relationship. When Nadia and Saeed make the difficult decision to leave their country for a safer one, their experiences shape who they are and what they want for their futures.

There’s a gentle yet bittersweet way in Mohsin’s storytelling that is really quite beautiful. Exit West explores the refugee experience: the hope and the struggle, and the natives’ reception of immigrants to their country. This is a story about the need for human connection, the quest for freedom, and how migration affects love and identity.

It’s a book that pulls you in and helps you see the world a little better, all while reading about the lives of two characters who stepped through doors hoping to find better and safer places.