‘In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and did not speak to her. For many days. His name was Saeed and her name was Nadia and he had a beard, not a full beard, more a studiously maintained stubble, and she was always clad from the tips of her toes to the bottom of her jugular notch in a flowing black robe. Back then people continued to enjoy the luxury of wearing more or less what they wanted to wear, clothing and hair wise, within certain bounds of course, and so these choices meant something…..’
This is how Moshin Hamid’s novel Exit West begins. Doesn’t it invite you to directly dive into a different reality? And yet, it might make you relate to what is happening in parts of our world today.
It’s #FictionFriday. If you are home bound this weekend, you can still sense other worlds through novels such as this one. Joyful reading!
Illustration by Jun Cen.