Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid

our eternally impending ending does not put a stop to our transient beginnings and middles until the instant when it does.

Dramatic circumstances, such as those in which they and other new lovers in the city now found themselves, have a habit of creating dramatic emotions, and furthermore the curfew served to conjure up an effect similar to that of a long-distance relationship, and long-distance relationships are well known for their potential to heighten passion, at least for a while, just as fasting is well known to heighten one’s appreciation for food.

that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.

their memories took on potential, which is of course how our greatest nostalgias are born.

We are all migrants through time.