Obama names Mohsin Hamid's Exit West as one of his favourite books of 2017

Everyone rounds off the year with a little retrospection and former POTUS Barack Obama is no different.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Obama listed the books and songs he enjoyed the most in 2017... and guess what? Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid's latest work Exit West was also on that list!

Exit West, a story about a refugee couple's attempted journey to safety, is Hamid's fourth novel and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Other favourite titles of Obama's include "The Power" by Naomi Alderman; "Grant" by Ron Chernow; "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond; "Five-Carat Soul" by James McBride; "Anything Is Possible" by Elizabeth Strout; "Dying: A Memoir" by Cory Taylor; "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles; "Sing, Unburied, Sing" by Jesmyn Ward; and two basketball-centered volumes, "Coach Wooden and Me" by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and "Basketball (and Other Things)" by Shea Serrano.

Obama is soon to join the ranks of writers, as CNN reports that he and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, have both been writing. Penguin Random House has acquired rights to the books, which are expected to be released in 2018.