This book was so, so beautiful. It is filled with lyrical writing, compelling characters, and an important story, somehow neatly packaged in a little over 200 pages. It follows Nadia and Saeed as they fall in love and eventually flee from their home city during a war.

I didn't even know that this book had magical elements before I started reading it... and I wasn't even mad. It worked so well. Usually if I don't realize that a book is magical realism (or it hasn't been marketed that way) I get annoyed. This book, not at all.

Exit West is thought provoking, painful, and hopeful. I would highly recommend this to everyone.