Leave the World Behind

SOON TO BE A MAJOR GLOBAL NETFLIX ADAPTATION STARRING JULIA ROBERTS, KEVIN BACON, ETHAN HAWKE AND MAHERSHALA ALI

The Times #1 BESTSELLER
The New York Times BESTSELLER
A BARACK OBAMA SUMMER READING PICK 2021

'Easily the best thing I have read all year' Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age
'Intense, incisive, I loved this and have still not quite shaken off the unease' David Nicholls

'I was hooked from the opening pages' Clare Mackintosh

'Simply breathtaking . . . An extraordinary book, at once smart, gripping and hallucinatory’ Observer

_______

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is a deeply magnetic and evocative novel that brings together two families, strangers to each other, who find themselves forced to share a harrowing ordeal during a long-awaited weekend getaway. Amanda and Clay have rented a luxurious holiday home in a remote corner of Long Island, hoping for an idyllic escape from their bustling lives in New York City. They look forward to bonding with their teenage children in serene isolation, away from the stresses of daily life.

Their peaceful retreat is shattered one evening by a sudden and unexpected knock at the door. Ruth and G. H., an older African American couple, arrive at the house in a state of panic, claiming to be its rightful owners. They bring troubling news of a massive and unexplained blackout that has swept across the city, cutting off all forms of communication. With the internet down, television service disrupted, and no way to reach the outside world, the two families must navigate an unnerving and ever-growing sense of uncertainty.

As tensions rise and allegiances shift, the mysteries unravel: should Amanda and Clay believe Ruth and G. H., and vice versa? What transpired in New York, and is it safe to remain in their isolated refuge? Amid the escalating fear and suspicion, the novel keenly explores themes of trust, race, class, and the fragility of human connections in the face of an increasingly unpredictable world.

_______

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020
FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2021

A Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Observer, Irish Times AND Time BOOK OF THE YEAR

Everyone is talking about Leave the World Behind.

'You will probably need to read it in as close to one sitting as possible’
Sunday Times

'A page-turner taking in themes of isolation, race, and class’
Guardian

‘A book that could have been tailor-made for our times’
The Times

‘A literary page-turner that will keep you awake even after it ends’
Mail on Sunday

'An exceptional examination of race and class and what the world looks like when it's ending'
Roxane Gay

'A thrilling book - one that will speak to readers who have felt the terror of isolation in these recent months and one that will simultaneously, as great books do, lift them out of it'
Vogue

'Explores complex ideas about privilege and fate with miraculous wit and grace'
Jenny Offill

‘For the reader, the invisible terror outside in Leave the World Behind echoes the sense of disquiet today in a world convulsed by the pandemic’
Financial Times

'Alam's achievement is to see that his genre's traditional arc, which relies on the idea of aftermath, no longer makes sense. Today, disaster novels call for something different'
New Yorker

'Read it with the lights on'
Jenna Bush Hager, October Book Club pick