Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
What attracted me to this story is that it is about human migration and how it impacts them. I have always been keen to know about how people adapt to displacement. To my mind, there are usually two kinds of behavior associated with migration. The first kind adapts to the new culture with open arms and is likely to move ahead. The second kind gets further seeped in their own culture in a new land. It's almost like if they change their ways, they are being disloyal to their roots. The question is, why do we choose what we choose? In the book, both these roles are beautifully filled in by the two main characters, Saeed and Nadia. In the story Saeed and Nadia, though not said as much, move from Syria to Greece to London to the USA. In the book, the comparison between Nadia and Saeed to migration is very well played out. When displaced, Saeed prays more, spends more time with his kind. It seems like the farther he moved away from the city of his birth through space and time, the ...