Exit West

As militants take over the city, rumours spread of doors that lead elsewhere: ordinary doors that, for a price, become passages to other countries. Saeed and Nadia step through one and emerge on the Greek island of Mykonos, then move on to London and later to California, joining countless other migrants. Hamid never explains how the doors work; they let him skip the journeys and focus on what it feels like to leave everything behind and start again.

The novel follows how displacement changes the couple's relationship. Saeed clings to the customs of home, while Nadia embraces new ways of life, and they slowly drift apart. Brief scenes show strangers around the world whose lives are also touched by the doors, suggesting a future where migration is everywhere. Hamid's long, flowing sentences give the book a dreamlike quality. Violence, loss and danger are present but described with restraint, and the tone is quietly hopeful.

Lyrical, timely and moving, a novel that asks what home means when the world keeps changing, and suggests that, in one way or another, every one of us is always moving on. About 256 pages in the Riverhead paperback.