Exit West Characters

Saeed

Saeed is a respectful and serious young man who has a close relationship with his parents. He meets Nadia at an evening business class and falls in love. When militants overtake his city and kill his mother, Saeed flees with Nadia, leaving his father behind. The couple migrates west, but they grow further apart as time passes. They break up, and Saeed falls in love with a preacher’s daughter. Fifty years later, Saeed sees Nadia one final time.

Nadia

Nadia is an independent woman who becomes estranged from her family when she decides not to marry. She unexpectedly falls for Saeed and is also drawn to women. After she and Saeed flee the militants and move to California, Nadia embraces her innate desires and falls in love with a female cook.

Saeed’s father

A former professor, Saeed’s father stays behind when his son and Nadia flee their bombed-out city, fearing he will only hurt their chances for survival. He dies of pneumonia a year later.

Saeed’s mother

A retired teacher, Saeed’s mother does not judge the militants when she sees a former student operating a machine gun in their army. A stray bullet kills her while she is looking for an earring in her car.

Preacher’s daughter

The preacher’s daughter meets and falls in love with Saeed in Marin, a city near San Francisco. Saeed feels a connection to her because her deceased mother came from the same country as Saeed.

Preacher

The preacher takes Saeed under his wing and gives him a sense of purpose.

Girl from Mykonos

The girl from Mykonos helps Saeed and Nadia find a magical door to London.

Cook

The cook works at the food cooperative in Sausalito. She becomes Nadia’s lover after Nadia and Saeed break up.

Foreman

The foreman is Saeed’s boss at the London construction site. He is a man of few words whom Saeed admires.

Maid

The maid from Marrakesh lives a lonely life. She is mute, her husband has left her, and her daughter lives far away. Lonely as she is, she would rather stay in Marrakesh where she is “tolerated.”

Musician

The musician is the first man Nadia had sex with. He loved Nadia but never expressed it. Nadia breaks up with him after meeting Saeed.

Old woman

The old woman from Palo Alto is “rich… on paper” and out of step with the world around her.

Man with the white-marked beard

The man with the white-marked beard invites Saeed and Nadia to live with him at the house on Vicarage Gate as long as they are willing to sleep in separate bedrooms.

Elderly man

The elderly man from Amsterdam falls in love with a wrinkled man from Rio de Janeiro who uses a magical door to visit him.

Wrinkled man

The wrinkled man from Rio de Janeiro is a painter who visits the elderly man in Amsterdam and finds love late in life.