Exit West: Through the Doors

Saeed, a gentle, rather traditional young man, meets Nadia, independent, robed in black and living alone, at an evening class. As militants close in on the city, curfews and checkpoints become everyday life. Saeed's mother is killed by a stray bullet while searching her car for a lost earring, and Nadia moves in with Saeed and his father. When the couple finally bribe their way to a door, Saeed's father refuses to come: he will not be a burden, and he asks Nadia never to leave his son until he is settled.

Location precision: The city is never named; Hamid says it was based in many ways on Lahore, which the pin marks.

The door brings them to Mykonos, where migrants from many countries live in a tent city, waiting for a way onwards. Saeed and Nadia go looking for the next door out. A local Greek girl who takes a liking to Nadia finally helps them through a newly discovered door. Hamid has been visiting the Greek islands for some thirty years, which may be why the camp is drawn with such sympathy for the islanders as well as the refugees.

Location precision: The novel doesn't place the camp on the island; the pin marks Mykonos.

Visitor guidance: Ferries reach Mykonos from Piraeus and Rafina near Athens; the island is busiest in July and August.

The next door leads into an empty luxury house in London. Saeed and Nadia claim a room, and soon the house fills with people from many countries, while migrants occupy whole streets of empty mansions in Kensington and Chelsea. The newcomers' London becomes "dark London", cut off from power and food, and a raid to clear it out threatens to end in a massacre. Instead, the authorities change course: migrants are put to work building "Halo London" around the old city in exchange for "forty metres and a pipe" — a plot and utilities.

Location precision: The house isn't identified; the pin marks Kensington.

Through one more door, Saeed and Nadia reach Marin County, north of San Francisco, where nearly everyone they meet is from somewhere else, and they are generally made welcome. Nadia works at a food cooperative and falls for the cook there; Saeed grows more religious and closer to a preacher's daughter. Without a fight, the couple admit their love has faded, and they separate. Hamid lived in the Bay Area for about a decade, and it is the only place in the book where the story slows down.

Location precision: The novel names only the county; the pin marks Marin County.

Visitor guidance: Marin is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco; Muir Woods and Point Reyes are its best-known parks.

Half a century on, Nadia returns to the city where it all began, and meets Saeed there again. They talk of their lives and the people they became, and he offers to take her one day to see the stars in the Chilean desert. Neither knows whether that evening will ever come. The scene stays in the unnamed city, so it has no pin.

Location precision: The novel's home city is unnamed.