Leave the World Behind: A Novel

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION

A Recommended Book From Vogue TIME The Washington Post Buzzfeed The Boston Globe The Wall Street Journal Vulture Newsweek NY Observer Refinery29 The New York Post Town & Country Parade The Millions PopSugar AARP Publishers Weekly Apartment Therapy Kirkus LA Mag BookPage Alma Lit Hub * The Week

A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple--it's their house, and they've arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area--with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service--it's hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple--and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?

Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam's third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped--and unexpected new ones are forged--in moments of crisis.

“"Riveting and claustrophobic...delivering a dazzling and dark examination of family, race, class, and what matters most when the impossible becomes possible."”

"A suspenseful tale that examines the complexities of race and class."

-- "USA Today"

"Cuttingly prescient about the current emotional atmosphere...This is a thrilling book--one that will speak to readers who have felt the terror of isolation in these recent, torturous months and one that will simultaneously, as great books do, lift them out of it."

-- "Vogue"

-- "Esquiure"

Rumaan Alam is the author of Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed, and elsewhere. He studied at Oberlin College, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.Marin Ireland is a voice artist who has won five Earphones Awards as well as the prestigious Audie Award for Best Female Narration in 2020. She is an award-winning actress known for her starring role in the Broadway show Reasons to Be Pretty, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. She has appeared in a number of off-Broadway shows and television series, including Homeland, Unforgettable, The Killing, The Following, and others.

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