Fantasy

Exit West follows Nadia and Saeed, two young people who fall in love in an unnamed country descending into civil war. As violence spreads through their city, everyday life becomes increasingly dangerous, and the couple begins searching for a way to escape. They hear rumours of mysterious doors that can transport people to distant countries, offering a possible route to safety. After passing through one of these doors, Nadia and Saeed find themselves navigating the uncertainties of refugee life in unfamiliar places, including Greece, London, and California. Their relationship changes as they adapt to new communities and confront the emotional costs of displacement. Blending realism with speculative fiction, Hamid explores migration, borders, belonging, and the resilience required to build a future after leaving home. The novel also asks how movement across borders transforms individuals and societies.

Set during the Islamic Golden Age, Under the Full and Crescent Moon imagines a fictional Muslim city governed by women, where religious scholarship, social equality, and community leadership have developed within a distinctive matriarchal society. Khadija, the intelligent but sheltered daughter of the city’s leading Islamic jurist, has spent much of her life immersed in books and religious scholarship. When her father appoints her as his assistant and scribe, she steps beyond the familiar walls of her home and discovers a wider world of friendships, female mentorship, and intellectual possibility. Under the guidance of influential women, including Imam Fatima and the Circle of Mothers, Khadija begins to understand her own potential. But the city’s relative peace is threatened when religious hardliners attempt to undermine its traditions and restrict the rights of women and religious minorities. Khadija must draw on her knowledge of Islamic law and her growing confidence to challenge those who seek to reshape her society through intolerance. Combining historical imagination with questions about faith, justice, and power, the novel explores women’s leadership and the ways religious teachings can be interpreted and used to protect or undermine social freedoms. At its heart, it is a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering that knowledge can be a powerful instrument of change.

When a mysterious, deadly plague sweeps across the world, a group of friends seeks refuge in a luxurious countryside mansion near the Pakistan–India border. But the haveli conceals an ancient darkness, and when they uncover a sealed chest hidden in a nearby cave, they unleash a primordial force that turns their sanctuary into a nightmare. Trapped inside the sprawling estate, the friends begin to unravel under the influence of its sinister magic, confronting buried traumas, personal demons, and the stories they tell themselves to survive. Drawing on South Asian and Middle Eastern folklore, this atmospheric dark fantasy explores memory, fear, and the terrifying power of the past.