The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

I am a bit in awe of this author, who wrote the Booker nominated book Exit West. In this story he explores the nature of skin color and the impact it has. Anders, the protagonist in the book, wakes up to discover that he has changed race. He looks in the mirror to see not the familiar white face, but the black man who had been Anders. He doesn’t seek to explain why this dramatic transformation takes place, but rather to explore the impact that it has on the people of the unnamed American town in which Anders lives. For although he is one of the first to undergo the transformation, he is not the last-- eventually there is just one white man left, and then there are none. The fascinating part of the story is that this transformation breeds violence and anger rather than a greater understanding of how meaningless the prejudices held based solely on skin color are. As more and more people are transformed, online unrest spills out on to the streets. Militants take control of the town, protesting against the fact that it has become a different--and less desirable--place. Anders finds himself no longer welcome at the gym, where previously the only other member of staff who wasn’t white was a janitor. It spirals downwards and people are absurd and believable in their response to their inevitable transformation.