Being a radical optimist with Mohsin Hamid – books podcast

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Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid joins Richard in the studio to talk about his latest novel, Exit West: the story of Saeed and Nadia, a couple who leave an unnamed city in search of a new life. Mohsin shares how he came up with the idea of doors that act as wormholes into alternative universes and locations, why he left Saeed and Nadia’s city anonymised and why the conversations around Brexit and Donald Trump have left him energised.

Plus Claire, Richard and Sian discuss the line between speculative fiction and science fiction, and how literary fiction writers are adopting sci-fi tropes in their novels – and why that might be so.

Reading list

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)