The 16th annual “One Book, One Region” kickoff will take place at 5:30 p.m. June 26 at the CURE Innovation Commons, 93 Shennecossett Road, Groton. The 2018 “one book,” "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid, will be introduced to the audience at the event through video clips and a presentation by Connecticut College Visiting Scholar-in-Residence Bina Nepram, who will provide context for the novel. Refreshments will be served.

Mohsin Hamid will appear at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 at Connecticut College's Palmer Auditorium.

"Exit West" was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and was a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award. The novel follows two young people who meet in a country teetering on the brink of civil war. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors — doors that can whisk people far away. As the violence escalates, they decide that they no longer have a choice but to flee.

Mohsin Hamid was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and spent the early years of his childhood in the United States before returning to Pakistan. At the age of 18, he came back to the U.S. and graduated from Princeton University in 1993. In 1997, he graduated from Harvard Law School. He is the author of "Moth Smoke" and the international bestseller "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books.

Hamid now divides his time between Pakistan and abroad, spending time in Lahore, New York, London, and Mediterranean countries including Italy and Greece.

Copies of "Exit West" will be available for purchase at the Junen 26 event, courtesy of Bank Square Books.

Book discussions and programs are planned at libraries throughout the summer. "Exit West" has also been chosen for the Connecticut College Summer Read program, and the college has sent the book to all incoming first year students.

The goals of "One Book, One Region" are to bring people together to discuss ideas, to broaden the appreciation of reading and to break down barriers among people. For further information, call the Groton Public Library at (860) 441-6750 or go to www.onebookoneregion.org.