The Last White Man

The Last White Man

The New York Times Bestseller 2022

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

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


© Mohsin Hamid 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

  • Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man is a visionary novel exploring race and identity... it's another bracing achievement from a consummate master, its silken prose breathing fresh air into fusty debates about race and identity
    Oprah Daily

About the author

Mohsin Hamid

MOHSIN HAMID writes regularly for The New York Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and is the author of Exit West, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moth Smoke, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and Discontent and its Civilizations. Born and mostly raised in Lahore, he has since lived between Lahore, London and New York.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more