Mohsin Hamid's Exit West wins Aspen Words Literary Prize 2018

Exit West has made it to a number of international literary awards, but this time the book has bagged an award!

Last week, Mohsin Hamid won the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2018 for his fourth novel Exit West. The awards were held in New York on April 10.

"Exit West is a novel about migration and how the world is changing — and could change — and how we are all migrants, and how we can find an optimistic future together," Hamid said in his recorded acceptance speech at a ceremony.

"I'm really grateful to be honored by this prize in particular, which is a prize that looks to books to have an impact on the world."

The author took home $35,000 as prize money.

Exit West is a story about a refugee couple's attempted journey to safety.

The Aspen Words Literary Prize is an annual award for an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.

Among its many nominations, Exit West has been nominated for LA Times Book Prize and was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.