Exit West

Travel Guide

The world as seen through the eyes of a refugee

From The Middle East, Greece, London, America

“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.”

The book starts in a country in the middle of political turmoil. Clearly located in the Middle East, it is a country of no name, but then that’s the whole point of this novel – it could and is anywhere where refugees leave and where turmoil exists.
It’s any country that forces its people to try to seek out a better life elsewhere, forcing them to flee and leave everything they’ve ever known.

“We are all migrants through time.”

“When we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”

The journey which follows is a long and arduous one. After a spell in England they arrive in California  having travelled through several places trying to find a place they can call home. With each location they seem to lose a little piece of themselves. They are often not welcome and try to find a small place of anywhere they can call home.

There is not much sense of the actual journeys however since the refugees pass through doors to get to their new land – doors that randomly transform into passages to another place. So there is no turmoil in getting across the borders, no risk of perishing at sea….a vital part of the refugee journey in many ways.