Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid

the possibility struck Nadia with a shock of recognition, as though a door was opening up, a door in this case shaped like a room.

she had a sense of the fragility of things, and she felt she was a small plant in a small patch of soil held between the rocks of a dry and windy place, and she was not wanted by the world, and here she was at least known, and she was tolerated, and that was a blessing.