Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid

they all knew Saeed’s mother well and had stories to relate in which she featured prominently, and while Saeed’s father was with them he felt not that his wife was alive, for the magnitude of her death impressed itself upon him again with every morning, but rather that he could share some small measure of her company.

life and its end are unpredictable, especially at a distance, where death seems to operate with such whimsical aim.

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