In a city swollen by refugees but still mostly at peace, or at least not yet openly at war, two young people notice one another. They share a cup of coffee, a smile, an evening meal. They try not to hear the sound of bombs getting closer every night, the radio announcing new laws, the public executions. Eventually the problem is too big to ignore: it's not safe for her to live alone, she must move in with his family, even though the young couple are not married and that too is a problem. Meanwhile, rumours are spreading of strange black doors in secret places across the city, doors that lead to London or San Francisco, Greece or Dubai. Someday soon, the time will come for this man and this woman to seek out one such door: joining the multitudes fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world. From the Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist comes a journey crossing borders and continents and into a possible future. Exit West is a love story from the eye of the storm.

It is a song of hope and compassion. It reaches toward something essential in humankind - something still alive, still breathing, an open hand and a thudding heart under all the rubble and dust.