Jesse

“The fury of those nativists advocating wholesale slaughter was what struck Nadia most, and it struck her because it seemed so familiar, so much like the fury of the militants in her own city. She wondered whether she and Saeed had done anything by moving, whether the faces and buildings had changed but the basic reality of their predicament had not.”
― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

“It's just hard," I said. "Everyone knows everyone. And everyone speaks Farsi. And everyone knows the dances. And I..." ..."Darioush." Sohrab bumped my shoulder again. "No one wants me here." "Everyone wants you here. We have a saying in Farsi. It translates to 'your place was empty'. We say it when we miss somebody." I sniffed. "Your place was empty before. But this is your family. You belong here.”
― Adib Khorram, Darius the Great Is Not Okay

“we are all children who lose our parents, all of us, every man and woman and boy and girl, and we too will all be lost by those who come after us and love us, and this loss unites humanity, unites every human being, the temporary nature of our being-ness, and our shared sorrow, the heartache we each carry and yet too often refuse to acknowledge in one another,”
― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

“But while fear was part of what kept them together for those first few months in Marin, more powerful than fear was the desire that each see the other find firmer footing before they let go, and thus in the end their relationship did in some senses come to resemble that of siblings, in that friendship was its strongest element, and unlike many passions, theirs managed to cool slowly, without curdling into its reverse, anger, except intermittently. Of this, in later years, both were glad, and both would also wonder if this meant that they had made a mistake, that if they had but waited and watched their relationship would have flowered again, and so their memories took on a potential, which is of course how our greatest nostalgias are born.”
― Mohsin Hamid, Exit West