Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Exit West Book Review

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (3 out of 5)

Exit West tells the raw and real story of two refugees, Saeed and Nadia, who escape their country which is on the brink of civil war. Hamid covers the challenges that migrants face leaving and entering countries, a topic that is very relevant to today’s world. Nadia and Saeed aren’t characters that are typically likable, they make selfish decisions and have seemingly irrational arguments. However, it is these characteristics and reactions to the events in their lives that make them tangible and all the more real. The story of their relationship isn’t perfect, but it depicts how people can change. Hamid also leaves Saeed and Nadia’s home city nameless so that the reader can interpret the city as their own, which is a small but significant detail. 

Hamid’s prose is very unique as he uses run-on sentences and irregular grammar consistently in his writing. I found it to be difficult to read and excessive, as if some words were chosen to make the narration sound “smarter.” Some sentences are the length of a paragraph and the structure was frustrating. Exit West utilizes magical realism to describe the experience of migration through doors that act as portals to new and unknown destinations. Doors that bring people all over the world from Marin to Mykonos. I felt that the use of these doors took away from the very real description of the migrant experience that Hamid had spent most of the book building. Saeed and Nadia’s lives in their home country were well written and developed. The use of the doors lacked that level of detail of the challenges Saeed and Nadia may have faced in the process of migration. 

In a country on the brink of civil war, two worlds collide when Nadia and Saeed meet. They develop a relationship, which is strengthened as the news of bombings increases and gunshots ring throughout their city. Rumors of doors, portals, that can bring people to new destinations far away begin to spread in the community. Soon, there are curfews and access to the internet is cut off. When the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed have no choice but to leave their home behind. Choosing to trust in the whispers, they step through a door into their new lives.