"The Last White Man" by Mohsin Hamid is a thought-provoking novella that explores themes of identity, race, and transformation in a rapidly changing world. The story begins with the mysterious phenomenon of white men waking up to find their skin has changed color, prompting a profound exploration of societal structures and personal relationships.

Hamid’s prose is beautifully lyrical, creating an unsettling yet captivating atmosphere. He deftly examines the complexities of race and privilege, inviting readers to reflect on their own identities and the societal constructs that shape them. The narrative is both intimate and universal, as it delves into the characters’ emotional landscapes amidst this surreal transformation.

The book also addresses themes of love, belonging, and fear in the face of change. The characters' relationships evolve as they grapple with their new realities, forcing them to confront their prejudices and assumptions. Hamid's skillful character development adds depth to the story, making the characters’ struggles feel poignant and relatable.

Overall, "The Last White Man" is a powerful commentary on race and identity, wrapped in a compelling narrative that challenges readers to reconsider their perspectives. Hamid’s ability to blend speculative fiction with social commentary makes this novella a must-read for those interested in contemporary issues and the human experience. It’s a thought-provoking journey that lingers long after the final page.

This is not my usual type of book but found it was not bad. Some interesting topics covered. Although a bit challenging

This book feels ever so poignant at the moment and should be required reading for everyone. Even as people are changing from white to black, prejudice is still prevalent among everyone.

Mohsin Hamid writes concise stories that are us think about our lot in life. I read Exit West a few years ago which centred around portals opening up between countries, allowing refugees and migrants to move more freely between areas. It made us think about the complete randomness and privilege of being born in one place over another.

This time in The Last White Man, we are confronted with the scenario of those who are white waking up one day with brown skin. How would that change things in western nations? Would it make those born white more sympathetic to those who weren’t? Would others treat you differently?

Through Anderson perspective we look at how this change affects his relationship with his girlfriend Oona, his father, and his work colleagues among others. How it changes Anders levels of anxiety and caution, and the way he interacts with new people as well.

Hamid really plays on the right wing trope of ‘their taking over the country’ in an interesting and thought provoking way. At 192 pages it’s well worth the read to take in new perspectives and ideas.

Unfortunately I read this when long-term sick and so while I noted a star rating, at the time I didn't have capacity for reviews for everything I was reading, and am only now just getting round to giving my feedback. Sorry that's not super helpful

I loved the idea of this one…imagine a world where people changed race randomly….but it didn’t go into the implications enough for me. I wanted it to be a gritty look at race and how society treats you depending on your colour, but I just found this to be rambling and it didn’t actually explore anything.
At least it’s short.

The concept was thought provoking and I think this was done well, particularly considering it's short page count. This just wasn't for me, but I'd still recommend for others!

When I read Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, I recommended it to absolutely everyone, and this was another really great book from the author. Hamid again uses magical realism as a fascinating device to explore the connotations and ramifications of race. In this quite short novel, Hamid confronts the reality of inter-racial relationships—whether familial, casual, or romantic—drawing attention to the arrogance of self-superiority that many white people feel when interacting with people of other races, and the way that white people often avoid addressing race as an issue, until it happens to affect them personally.

my second book by this author and i enjoyed it just as much as the first Exit West. The book is short but there is plenty to get ones brain working!"

A provocative and timely update of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis - a quick read but a deeply powerful one.

“One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown. This dawned upon him gradually, and then suddenly”

My thanks to Penguin General U.K. Hamish Hamilton for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Last White Man’ by Mohsin Hamid. My apologies for the late feedback.

This short novel is clearly inspired by Kafka's ‘The Metamorphosis’ as the novel’s protagonist, Anders, wakes to find that his skin has turned dark. At first he hides away only telling his friend, Oona. Yet soon there are reports of similar occurrences across the land. Eventually Anders emerges to confront this fundamentally changed reality.

Other characters respond to the change in various ways, including Oona’s mother who is so distressed that she begins to frequent extreme right wing Internet forums. Yet as the transformations progress how can such prejudices continue or will it incite in further violence and hateful rhetoric?

A few years ago I read Mohsin Hamid’s Booker Prize shortlisted ‘Exit West’ that utilised magical realism in the form of mysterious doors that transported refugees and migrants to new lands.

In a similar way the transformations serve as a powerful allegory that addresses various responses to race and racism. It clearly taps into the white nationalists’ fears of the ‘Great Replacement’.

Overall, I found ‘The Last White Man’ an intelligent, well written novel that was very thought provoking.

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid is an interesting concept. Anders, a white man, one day wakes to find that his skin is now brown. It reminded me of Frank Kafka's Metamorphosis, but for a modern era. Race is a big topic in the world so I thought it would be interesting to see how Anders does in the book. I liked how it was described how Anders felt when he ventured into the world after his transformation and felt more exposed and feared by people he once knew, and also how society reacted when more and more white people were waking up with brown skin. I feel the book could have gone further, there's no explanation given for the change and attempt by anyone to try and understand the biological changes that could have occurred. Overall I enjoyed the book, it was easy to read and flowed well but I feel that the characters didn't do much and there could have been more depth about society and how people within it still behave regarding race.

“The Last White Man” by Mohsin Hamid is a speculative fiction novel about a young white man called Anders. One morning, Anders wakes to find that his appearance is changed. He is no longer white. Confused and unsure what to do, he reaches out to his friend and lover Oona. As they slowly renegotiate their relationship, other people in society start experiencing changes in their appearance and skin colour until it becomes clear that society will never be the same again.

This was a deceptively simple book that explored race and racism in a novel way: what would happen if people who had lived their lives as white suddenly had to live their lives with a different racial appearance? Hamid uses a small but effective cast of characters to explore some of the subtle and not-so-subtle racist views that people harbour, and how those views must be grappled with in the new society he has created. Some of these issues play out in public displays of violence and conflict, while others play out in the privacy of family homes. Particularly effective were the interactions between Oona and her mother, whose refusal to accept the situation becomes untenable, and Anders and his father, who find a new understanding through this experience. However, I also thought that the otherwise banal setting of the gym where Anders works was where issues of discrimination, exploitation and tolerance were truly borne out.

I think the only thing that I found myself wanting was a bit more of an explanation of why this had happened. With a confidence that I can only admire, Hamid just sets the scene without any attempt to justify – scientifically or otherwise – what is causing people to change. I think I would have liked just the merest whiff of a theory to cling to.

A thought-provoking and original story that encourages the reader to really think about the social impacts of racism.

This short read is quite disjointed in parts and the premise has been told better elsewhere in print. Anders does not come across very well and seems to view the world through very superficial eyes throughout the novel.

Disappointing read, so much promise but didn't reach the mark for me.

Anders wakes up one morning to find that he has changed from a white man to a black man overnight. The phenomenon is never explained, but it happens rapidly across America. His own father ends up being the last white man. Anders is a likeable character, and we sympathise with his experience and how he comes to feel about himself. A short book, compelling and fascinating.

What a concept-loved it and the questions it made me ask myself and the conversations it started with others.

The book instantly pulls you in and the characters are well written and believable.

Read if you like thought provoking fiction.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publishers for getting to read Mohsin Hamid's latest novella. I am a real fan of his work, particularly Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist which have both been nominated for the Booker Prize.

I don't think that The Last White Man will make Hamid a third time booker nominee. Most of his work is short - but this is incredibly short, and I just wanted more from it. It's a fascinating premise, wonderfully written but I wanted to explore it more.

This, like Exit West, would be categorised as magical realism. It is a conscious echo of Kafka's Metamorphosis from the opening line:

"One morning Anders, a white man woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown."

(as compared to "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." - you may be familiar with a different first line if you have read a different translation.)

This curious phenomenon spreads until over time, the whole of society turns dark except for one white man left. (view spoiler) We see this from the perspective of Anders and Oona, along with Oona's widowed mother and Anders' widowed father who is dying of cancer. Anders is relieved he is not the only one who has changed, and it quickly becomes clear that the change will happen to everyone eventually.

It's an examination of racism - but as the reader, you are left to extrapolate a lot for yourself. It's the kind of book that you finish and need to sit and think what you've read and what it means and what it doesn't mean, what it says, what you assume, and what that says about you. You just need to sit a little longer and work something out... but you aren't sure what.

The narrative style is beautiful - although it might take getting used to. Each sentence is almost stream of consciousness, many conjunctives making the sentences long and almost dreamlike. I think this suited the book very well, but I realise some people will claim it's pretentious and 'too literary.' It certainly didn't feel so for me; the words wash over you and the story is so short and unravels so fast that it would be difficult to read it in more than one sitting. The unique narrative voice really works for me.

The most interesting character was actually Oona's mother, a conspiracy theorist, and - although it is never stated - probably quite racist. She finds herself 'proud' to be one of the last people to change, which really made me think about underlying perceptions and prejudices that people deny even to themselves. The emotion in this slim novella is so strong but understated; it is like Hamid's other writing in this way.

Because of its brevity, it feels almost like a parable, but there is no clear message. There is, as in Exit West, a general feeling of potential optimism, but I probably wouldn't go further than that.

Having said I wanted I want it to be longer, it does work at the length it is. It's almost like a thought experiment. Hamid continues to probe our prejudices and societal norms in a subtle and non-threatening way; I will always be excited to read something new by him.


Side note, here is what Hamid said inspired him to write this:

This sense that whiteness itself was worth thinking about from within, and my need to write this novel grew during the aughts, when I lived in London, encountering more of a threatened whiteness during the unease that morphed into Brexit.

I wanted to explore whiteness as honestly and sympathetically but also unsparingly and brutally as possible, as one might explore religiosity here in Pakistan, where there’s been a rise in intolerant discourse. I watch parallels between Muslim-majority societies and white-majority societies, and I participate in an acknowledgment of a sense of loss. I don’t regard whiteness as a monolithic thing. All of my characters are experiencing the loss of whiteness in different ways.

For this handful of characters, whiteness dies as a mutual participatory category.

Fascinating, thought provoking stuff - get a copy when it comes out!

A thought provoking read.

The last white man is the story of Anders who wakes up one day and finds he has suddenly turned brown. Anders is now questioning his identity and starts to see all of the privileges he previously enjoyed that he now struggles to access.

The last white man explored love, loss, race, identity and privilege. It is a story that makes you question our own identity and how much of our identity is shaped by ourselves and how much by how others perceive you.

Definitely worth reading.

I read this book because I had read The Reluctant Fundamentalist but have to admit I really didn’t enjoy this one. The interminably long sentences with commas where there should have been full stops became irritating rather than lyrical. I was hoping for a deeper thought process of this phenomenon of white men turning into black men overnight. This was so superficial and seemed to be more concerned with Anders and Ooona’s relationship, which in itself was pretty flimsy. Sorry just not my cup of tea.

This story has you thinking throughout What if? An original and interesting story. Anders the stories main character undergoes not just a skin colour change but also a personality change as he adapts to peoples changed perceptions of him..