summary of exit West by mohsen Hamid Saeed and Nadia meet in an unnamed City on the verge of Civil War they are both taking adult education classes there Saeed has been watching Nadia for days she wears long black robes like the religious people in the country so Syed follows her out of class and asks her if she wants to get coffee she asks you don't say your evening prayers not always he says and as he tries to explain himself she cuts him off and says I don't pray after a short pause she says maybe another time and gets on her motorbike to leave the next day Saeed can't stop thinking about her at work he sells outdoor ads like Signs and he can't stop thinking about her the story jumps to a scene in Australia where a white woman is sleeping in her bedroom as she sleeps a dark-skinned guy slowly comes out of the darkness of her closet which is darker and more complete than the rest of the room which has no lights on when he comes out of this strange door the man sneaks through the bedroom and out the open window the story goes back to Saeed and Nadia again Saeed lives with his parents in a small apartment that used to be very elegant but is now a little worn down because it is in a crowded and Commercial area still the family is happy and they often sit on the patio while Saeed charts the city's Skyline and looks at the stars through a pricey telescope on one of these nights the family hears gunshots after a moment they decide to go inside and spend the night in the safety of their living room when Saeed and Nadia finally get together for coffee he asks her why she wears long black robes even though she doesn't pray so men don't with me she says with a smile Nadia grew up in a very religious family but she never felt drawn to this kind of faith her parents and sister were upset when she moved out on her own even though she wasn't married and because she wouldn't give in their relationship broke down since the fight she hasn't talked to her parents or even her sister as Saeed and Nadia's relationship grows the city Falls deeper into chaos as extreme militants take over the neighborhoods and kill bystanders and government officials to establish control Saeed and Nadia still managed to live somewhat normal lives they both go to work use their phones to surf the Internet and get together in the evenings at Nadia's apartment to smoke pot and listen to records one night they sit on Nadia's rooftop and eat magic mushrooms as they get closer they touch each other for the first time when they see each other again they are still close but each time Syed stops Nadia from having sex by telling her to her sorrow that he wants to wait until they are married soon the government will turn off all cell phone service to make it harder for extreme militants to run the city so Nadia and Syed can't talk to each other until Syed shows up at Nadia's house just as she's coming back from the bank where she had to fight through a crowd of people trying to get money out of their accounts as she tried to get through the crowd a guy stuck his hand between her legs and she couldn't do anything about it she ran home from the bank with all of her money but she was in a very bad mood she was pleased to see Saeed waiting at her door not too long after that saeed's mother is killed by an accidental bullet Nadia moves in with Saeed and his father after the funeral when she sees how sad Saeed and his father are at this point tensions in the city are rising quickly and Saeed Nadia and saeed's father can no longer live the lives they used to since the militants have taken over the city Nadia and saeed's employers have either left or gone out of business has left them with no way to make money and nothing to do during the day but hide in their apartment and listen to gunfire and the occasional airstrike from drones in the sky around this time stories start to spread about black doors that can move people from one place to another and take them far away it seems that these doors just pop up in place of regular doors and many people in the city actively look for them as a way to get away from the violent radicals but these doors are how the radicals got into the city from the hills in the first place so the militants know about them and kill anyone who tries to leave through them still Saeed and Nadia decide they have to go through one of these doors because they want to get themselves in saeed's Father out of the city after paying a man to help them find a door however they find out that saeed's father won't leave the city he tells his son your mother is here and adds that Saeed must leave without him because death awaits him in this city when Saeed and Nadia walk through the door they find themselves in Mykonos as Greece where they see a group of refugees camping in the Rocky Hills along the beach as Nadia and Saeed set up their tent Nadia bends down and kisses Saeed in broad daylight this is something they'd never done before because rebels in their country didn't let couples even married ones touch in public side backs away because he is surprised and Nadia feels something bitter in him that she has never seen in him before Syed and Nadia don't have to look long to find some people from their country these women and men tell them not to trust everyone in the camp so Saeed and Nadia make sure to be careful when going alone or at night one night though they stay out longer than usual because they are trying to catch fish for dinner when they saw a group of men coming up behind them they tried to run away but the men caught up quickly they scramble over the rocks and climb a steep hill leaving the fishing rod behind so they can move faster and hopefully lose their pursuers on the way up Nadia trips and cuts her arm on a rough Rock but the young lovers keep going when they reach the top of the hill they are surprised to see a group of armed guards watching over a small house they know that this means a door has opened inside the cabin that leads somewhere good since the military only guards portals to rich countries Syed and Nadia stop because they are stuck between the guards and the men who are chasing them but the men never get to the top of the hill slowly but surely Nadia's wound gets worse their money runs out and they run out of places to get food soon they decide to go to a volunteer group that will take care of Nadia's hurt arm here they meet a young female worker with a shaved head she dresses naughty as wound and makes a real connection with her which really moves Nadia when the volunteer tells Saeed and Nadia she wants to help them they tell her they want to go through another door the volunteer tells them she might be able to make this happen from then on Nadia went to the clinic every day to hang out with the volunteer drink coffee and smoke joints with her until one day the young woman took Nadia Saeed and herself to a new door the volunteer in Nadia stand in front of the doorway and give each other a tight hug before going through the door when Nadia and Saeed come out on the other side they find themselves in a beautiful hotel style bedroom as they go downstairs and realize they are in an empty house other migrants slowly start to show up they move around the building and claim rooms for themselves it turns out that they went to a rich part of London where rich people have second homes because so many of these homes are empty migrants quickly move in and refuse to leave even when British law enforcement shows up and tells them to luckily this plan doesn't work and the police cops run away Saeed on the other hand feels more and more Awkward about being the only guy from his country in the mansion in fact most of the other migrants are from Nigeria they meet in the courtyard to form an unofficial Council which Nadia chooses to join even though she is not from Nigeria still Saeed feels disconnected from his own country he gets rid of This Feeling by praying every day saeed's actions are hard for Nadia to understand and their relationship starts to get worse they fight all the time and rarely do anything sexual they also start spending long periods of time apart even though they've heard that angry londoners are going to attack the migrants soon and that if they aren't together when it happens it could break them up for good when the native born londoners finally attack both Nadia and Saeed get hurt in small ways overall though the migrant Community wins only three people die and they are able to move out of the mansions and set up work camps on the edge of the city and Nadia moved to one of these camps where they sleep in tents and work on making permanent homes for migrants like them even though their job keeps them busy and takes their minds off of things they still fight and every night they lie rigidly next to each other in the end they decide to go through another door as a last-ditch effort to save their relationship they hope that this door will lead them to a place where they can fall in love again Saeed and Nadia have left London and are now in the Rolling Hills of Marin California near the ocean in Marin where they have moved from other places the refugees are spread out so they set up a small camp away from everyone else even though they have to hike down the hills to get to work the view of the ocean is worth it and one of Nadia's co-workers at the local food Cooperative gives them joints each night they smoke a joint together which brings them back to how they used to be with each other before they had to leave their City one night though Nadia suddenly suggests that they go their different ways and the next morning the couple agrees that this is for the best she doesn't hug Saeed and she leaves their poorly built home to start her own life after a few months of sporadic contact in meetings they go their separate ways eventually a month goes by without any contact then a year and then a lifetime the author says Nadia goes back to her home City for the first time since she and Saeed left it all those years ago the war in the country has been over for a long time as Nadia walks through the streets she sees Saeed the two agree to meet at a nearby cafe where they talk about their lives and how things would be different if they had gotten married Nadia asks Saeed if he has ever been to the Chilean deserts which he once told her he wanted to do he says yes and that he'd love to take her there sometime if she ever has a free evening she says with a smile that she would like that very much and then they part ways not knowing if that evening would ever come about the author mohsen Hamad was born in Pakistan but he grew up in Palo Alto California while his father went to Stanford University to get a PhD Hamad and his family moved back to Pakistan when he was nine years old he went to Atchison College a very good boarding school that was started in the late 1800s at age 18 he went to Princeton University and finished with the highest honors or summa laude he went to Harvard Law School but didn't like it in his free time he worked on a novel he had started when he was an undergraduate at Princeton he released this book moth smoke in 2000. moth smoke was a big hit in the U.S and even bigger in Pakistan where it was made into a TV drama this gave Hamad the chance to write full-time he didn't finish another book until 2007 when The Reluctant Fundamentalist came out it was based on his time at Princeton and his thoughts about the world after September 11th how to get dirty rich in rising Asia his third book came out in 2013. exit West his fourth book came out in 2017 and was a nominee for the man Booker prize the New York Times the New Yorker and the Paris review are among hamid's many Publications hope we summarized it fully and you liked it please hit the like button and subscribe to our channel so that we are motivated to create more videos