The Last White Man
Summary
From the internationally bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change
One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.
'Gorgeously crafted . . . The Last White Man concludes on a note of hope, a door jarred open just enough to let transcendence pour through' O, the Oprah Magazine
'The electric premise, borrowed from Kafka's The Metamorphosis, looks set to update a classic to make it urgently relevant' Evening Standard
Praise for Exit West
'Hamid's enticing strategy is to foreground the humanity. . . . [He] exploits fiction's capacity to elicit empathy and identification to imagine a better world.' - The New York Times Book Review
'Lyrical and urgent . . . peels away the dross of bigotry to expose the beauty of our common humanity.' - O, the Oprah Magazine
'Powerful, vivid, poignant . . . Hamid is the master' The Sunday Times
'Astonishing' Zadie Smith
'[An] exceptionally moving and powerful novel' The Guardian
One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.
'Gorgeously crafted . . . The Last White Man concludes on a note of hope, a door jarred open just enough to let transcendence pour through' O, the Oprah Magazine
'The electric premise, borrowed from Kafka's The Metamorphosis, looks set to update a classic to make it urgently relevant' Evening Standard
Praise for Exit West
'Hamid's enticing strategy is to foreground the humanity. . . . [He] exploits fiction's capacity to elicit empathy and identification to imagine a better world.' - The New York Times Book Review
'Lyrical and urgent . . . peels away the dross of bigotry to expose the beauty of our common humanity.' - O, the Oprah Magazine
'Powerful, vivid, poignant . . . Hamid is the master' The Sunday Times
'Astonishing' Zadie Smith
'[An] exceptionally moving and powerful novel' The Guardian
Reviews
With one remarkable book after another, Mohsin Hamid has proven himself to be one of the 21st century's most essential writers. This is, perhaps, his most remarkable work yet. The Last White Man is myth and poetry operating as a deeper form of social commentary, and an extraordinary vision of human possibility
Ayad Akhtar