Exit West

‘Location, location, location, the estate agents say. Geography is destiny, respond the historians.’ 

Mohsin Hamid has his own brand of magical realism, bordering on apocalyptically dark shades of human paranoia and indignities. The Muslim diaspora and the immigrant debate across the globe is primary topics with decent people running from their homelands to find a better place. The continuous war between militants and government, natives and immigrants, religion and race, shared borders and shared fates, and amongst all this the birth of the mystic legend of doors which take you elsewhere, somewhere far, completely new - a teleportation device which would be miracle out of a fantasy but in this story they lie under barricades by authorities to avoid the influx of more desperate people. 

And amongst all this there is a beautiful love story between Saeed and Nadia, the young love in the backdrop of war and survival as the pain, bitterness, resentment and unkindness creeps into their lives where there was only love. As author explains - “for personalities are not a single immutable color, like white or blues, but rather illuminated screens, and the shades we reflect depend much on what is around us.” They pass the rigmarole of attach- detach, “their memories take in potential, which is of course how our greatest nostalgias are born.”

“Nativeness is a relative matter’ - with every generation having its share of immigration stories with unreal turns and twists of human survival. Anyone who wants such people out of their country must read this book, to hear their side of the story. Whether you read ‘Pachinko’ based on Korea, ‘Home going’ based on Africa or ‘Exit west’ based on Middle East. This is human reality, and we can’t run from it, because there are only two sides to a border, and you never know which side wins, and the other side can be on the run! 

Then there is a migration of a different kind and not always places, it could be generations, era or phases of life, because, aren’t “we all migrants of time.” And there are people who stay - described beautifully by the author as “ A small 🌱 plant in a small patch of soul held between the rocks of a dry and windy place, not wanted by the world, and here she was at least known, and tolerated and that was a blessing.” 

Well as the author says ‘It’s not a story if it doesn’t have an audience’ so please be a reader and be teleported into this story and as it did for me, I hope it arouses some empathy in you for people living in those refugee camps, those who cross borders in the dark of the night, avoiding the guns and traps of the armed guards, those who lost their homes and loved ones, those who are collecting pieces of their broken world trying to build a future for what little is left.