Mohsin Hamid on 'The last white man'

Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man (2022) tells the story of the white man Anders, who wakes up one morning to find that his skin has turned dark. It transpires that he is not the only one, and there is no cure. In a society where everyone gradually changes colour, fear and aggression await, but the threat is short-lived. When the last white man is buried, the apparent simplicity of a uniform world is left.

The Last White Man is a novel about loss, identity, family and love, but it is above all a salient portrait of the West today, in which everyday racism, unequal pay, conspiracy theories and yoga as lifestyle predominate. Hamid makes political themes subtly tangible with painfully superficial characters, who mainly worry about how others regard them.

Mohsin Hamid grew up in Lahore, Pakistan. He is the author of prize-winning novels, including his debut Moth Smoke (2000) and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), which was adapted to film. After the successful reception of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2014) and ExitWest (2018), The Last White Man (2022) is Hamid’s most recent novel. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. As well as novels, he writes essays about migration, politics and culture and short stories for publications like The New Yorker.