Moshni Hamid's "Exit West" A Futuristic Mongrel Society Sans Borders Wins Man Booker '17

Moshni Hamid (b Pakistan 1971) is a self-described mongrel living a somewhat nomadic existence with his wife & daughter between his home country and other foreign countries: London, NYC, Italy & Greece.   Hamid's novel "Exist West" is set not too far off in the future in a not too incredulous world where migrants make up the majority of the population in every nation.  "Exist West" received the 2017 Man Booker Prize.  The story follows Nadia & Saeed, a young couple newly in love in a war torn Muslim nation (assumed to be Pakistan).   Thrust together through a militant take over & intolerable living conditions, Nadia & Said plan a harrowing escape.  Together they find passages through "doors" which mystically open onto other cities in Greece, Britain & the US.  The dystopian refugee living conditions they come upon entering & exiting through mysterious portals land them as undesirable migrants who must fend for themselves under harsh & unwelcoming circumstances.   The novel looks at a future world that is becoming so overrun by immigration that the indigenous population is dissipating along with basic necessities for survival.   The attachment between Nadia & Saeed becomes one of necessity and obligation.   As they manage to construct an adaptable living situation just outside the city of San Francisco, arrived via a "door" their bond of attachment erodes.  Saeed's logistical distancing from his homeland & religious observances draw him back into his heritage.  Nadia completely dissociates from her familial ties & upbringings.   As much as Hamid envisions a future society of integrated races, nationalities & religions as the outcome  of an ever increasing migrant populous, there is much to be said for the loss of tribal customs as there is for a world melded together into a hybrid amalgamation.  Before the buildup of a new order of co-existence there is an apocalyptic purgatory.  Atwood's terrifying sci-fi "Oryx & Crake" leads to a rebirth of an innocent & peaceful new race.  Hamid's "Exit West" is a torpor of displacement that is more convincing and thereby all the more insufferable.