Exit West portrays two lovers forced to navigate the foundations of their own budding relationship in an unnamed, war-torn country. With the two main characters consistently surrounded by violence and death, there remains a sense of expectation for a constant barge of death., fear and misery. However, the audience receives little of this information directly from Hamid. In fact, very little of the novel is devoted to describing the feelings or thoughts of the characters especially in the face of death. One of the novel’s most interesting aspects is its refusal to openly acknowledge death in an obvious fashion. Varying forms of the word ‘death’ are used throughout the work. The word ‘death’ only appears in sections of the novel that refer to