Exit West/ Mohsin Hamid - 4 stars

[JoLene]

(Cross posted to Tribute to Denizen)

This is the story of a relationship between Saeed and Nadia. As there relationship blossoms so does the unrest in the unnamed city and country where they live. As life becomes increasingly difficult, they decide to take a chance by using one of the doors that are appearing around the city to escape. However, life on the other side of the doors has its own set of problems as the world gets caught up in a global refugee crisis.

This was a beautifully written story of a relationship. The book was not long and the reader must fill in some of the blanks about the details. As an example, Saeed and Nadia are the only characters that have names --- everyone else is referred to in reference to them (Saeed's father) or to their role (the chef). The country is not named but seems like it is somewhere in the middle east and their religion is not named but seems to be Islamic. Because of this, the writing at times had a dream like quality since often, in dreams, you don't have all the details. The magical doors created a vehicle for moving Saeed and Nadia to different places, each with its own set of problems. With this device, Hamid is able to explore what it means to belong and how experiences can bond but also can exacerbate differences. I definitely recommend the book and may bump it up a star after pondering it for some more. This might be something that I actually re-read because perhaps I would have some understanding of some of the "interludes" where some unrelated people are discussed.