Part of Hamid’s genius in writing Exit West lies in his decision to avoid naming Nadia and Saeed’s home country, thereby universalizing their experience as refugees while referencing the global refugee crisis as a whole. Hamid writes for dozens of magazines, journals, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. His third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, was released in 2013, and his fourth, Exit West, appeared in 2017 and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

He didn't complete another novel until 2007, when he published The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which reflects both his experiences at Princeton and his reflections about the post 9/11 world. Moth Smoke was a success in the United States and a huge hit in Pakistan (it was even adapted as a TV miniseries), enabling Hamid to devote himself to writing full-time. In his spare time, he worked on a novel he had begun writing as an undergraduate at Princeton in 2000, he published this work, Moth Smoke. He attended Harvard Law School, but found it boring. At the age of 18, he attended Princeton University and graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors).

After the age of nine, Hamid returned to Pakistan with his family and attended Aitchison College, a highly prestigious boarding school founded in the late 19th century.

Mohsin Hamid was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his childhood in Palo Alto, California while his father pursued a PhD at Stanford University.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid