The Last White Man - by Mohsin Hamid

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change.

One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders's skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Soon, reports of similar events begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends, and family will greet them.Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance at a kind of rebirth--an opportunity to see ourselves, face to face, anew.

In Mohsin Hamid's "lyrical and urgent" prose (O Magazine), The Last White Man powerfully uplifts our capacity for empathy and the transcendence over bigotry, fear, and anger it can achieve.

Review Quotes

"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, author of Homeland Elegies

"Searing, exhilarating. . . . reimagines Kafka's iconic The Metamorphosis for our racially charged era. ... Hamid brings a restless, relentless brilliance to his characters' journeys and the revelations, public and private, that inform us all. ... Gorgeously crafted, morally authoritative, The Last White Man concludes on a note of hope, a door jarred open just enough to let transcendence pour through." --Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily

Praise for Mohsin Hamid:

"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

"Moving, audacious, and indelibly human." --Entertainment Weekly

"Feels immediately canonical, so firm and unerring is Hamid's understanding of our time and its most pressing questions." --The New Yorker

About the Author