Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, whose Exit West made it to the shortlist, was born in Lahore.

The son of a professor, Hamid a Harvard Law School graduate, is the author of three other novels — Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, as well as a collection of essays, Discontent and its Civilisations.

“Yes, I’m pro-migrant,” he told NPR earlier this year.

“I personally tend to believe that there is a right to migration in the same way there is a right to love whom you like, to believe what you believe, and to say what you want to say.”