What Books Influenced Exit West Author, Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid, author of several novels including, Moth Smoke,  How to get filthy rich in rising Asia, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Exit West, a 2017 BPL Literary Prize nominee, reflected on books that layed a major role in his own writing. 

No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe -- This classic novel is the story of an idealistic young Nigerian man who goes to the West to study and then returns to Nigera to work. I read it in high school in Pakistan, after years of living in California, and it spoke to me powerfully. 

Beloved by Toni Morrison -- I had the good fortune of studying with Morrison in college. One day she caught me reading her novel, Jazz. She said, "Read Beloved. It's GOOD." I did and she was right. Phenomenal. I never thought of slavery the same way again. 

The Fall by Albert Camus -- I read this novel, discovered the power of the second person, and was never the same, as a writer, again. The dramatic monologue form of this book was a major influence on my own second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. 

Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi -- Short, elegant, and stunning, this is a novel that uses form and voice to create a thriller out of an aging and overweight journalist's political awakening in fascist Portugal. Another important influence on my second novel. 

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion -- The essay collection that showed me what essay collections could do, by one of the great masters of the essay form. I will never forget Didion's take on a California that existed shortly before I first moved there, nor her views on character.