A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction)
A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher’s Lunch * LitHub * … Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher’s Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe
A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.
From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel 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.
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?
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This story about a family turns into a domestic suspense novel and becomes a dystopian tale. Two strangers appear at an isolated vacation rental late at night, claiming to be the owners. The couple renting hesitate before opening the door. Are these people the owners or posing as them to get inside? When something happens, they must decide whether to stay together or run for safety. I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen next.
Lots of food for thought in this ingenious, well-written novel! It would be a great book club discussion choice.
I found the book to be an easy read, thought provoking…….and creepy! I took a chance on a novel with a subject matter that I ordinarily would not read. Lucked out with this one!
This is the second book I have read by this author, and both were “just OK” in my opinion. There are so many reviews touting this book that I thought I had to read it. It is a bizarre story about a white couple and their children heading to a remote part of East Hampton for vacation. Then a black couple knocks on their door stating that they are the owners and die to an incident in the city, they need to stay in their house. The first couple is wary of them.
As the story progresses, it seems that a blackout has happened, and there is no internet, TV, cell service. But as it continues, it is more sinister- animals start appearing in strange ways, people are getting sick and disoriented. The world is no longer safe.
Underlying the story is a distrust among the races, a sharp difference in wealth, and the needs of parents and child. The author also spends an inordinate amount of time on describing sex, sexual feelings, and the act itself.
I don’t know that I will read any more by this author- too out there for me!
To say Leave the World Behind is odd is an understatement. Right from the start, we get a full-page description of one of the main characters shopping–and everything she puts in the cart. It would seem the beginning of an idyllic family getaway, which it is not. Rumaan Alam builds suspense. We need to know what happens to these people, but the head hopping–switching point of view–and an overload of fragments are annoying. This book got huge buzz, and I get it, but literary fictionists think they can do whatever they want to do, and then they do it. I was glad to leave this book behind.
Hated the ending…a cop out!
Maybe not the best audiobook choice for the day after a coup-attempt and the height of a global pandemic, but this novel’s end-of-the -world omniscient narrator thoughtfully contemplates what matters, who we are, and, even as we are ignorant to the end of the world approaching, how we choose to behave. So inspirational…? We aspire and we have bad habits, we find comfort in what we throw into our grocery cart, we have real-life behavior and vacation week behavior, we judge people based on the interior of their homes and by their names, but when the end is in sight, what really matters? This is an intelligent, nuanced, work of literary fiction that pits the survival instincts of two couples against one another. It is a highly suspenseful, microscopic examination of just a few days of Amanda and Clay’s Airbnb vacation in the Hamptons. The home’s rightful owners, Ruth and GH, show up after an emergency in the city and even though distrust, fear and judgment are initial reactions, this novel illuminates the true qualities that bring peace to humans as the end looms near. And for that matter at any time. Loved the narrator – Marin Ireland – becoming one of my absolute favorites!
A page Turner. Very different but we’ll written. Thought provoking and frightening !
very short but very entertaining
Interesting book. Bad ending!
Thank you Ecco Books & Librofm for #gifting me a copy of this audiobook.
2.75/5
Leave the World Behind is a story of a white middle aged couple and their kids that rent a house in an isolated part of Long Island. Late one night the black owners of the house show up unannounced and ask to stay the night because something is happening but they’re not sure what.
This is a very vague, slow burn thriller. I had such high hopes for this book after reading the synopsis, which might have been part of the problem. It honestly left me scratching my head though, wondering what actually happening.
This is told from multiple POV and seemed to bounce around unexpectedly, making it hard to follow at times. I also found the more explicit scenes to be very strange and at times inappropriate (and that coming from someone whole loves a good smut book).
This story raises many more questions in the reader’s mind than it answers. A couple and their two teenage children lease a beautiful home far away from civilization for a week’s vacation. All goes well until the black homeowners show up at the front door seeking admittance as they have driven from the city in the wake of a power outage. What follows is a series of unexplained events which leave the reader questioning what is really happening. The vocabulary is amazing and I now have thirty-three new words to define!
Well, this is a strange book! It’s a bit spooky and suspenseful and told from the different perspectives of all the characters, and you keep on reading to see what happens next. However, the story is not wrapped up neatly in the ending, and you are left wondering just what exactly was happening.
I received this in a publisher’s giveaway, and it sat on the shelf until I’d read that it was becoming a popular book. It’s a very weird book; a cross of “Six Degrees of Separation”( John Guare) meets “Pacific Heights”(Marten Fane) meets “Guardians of the Garden”(Teresa Pocock) meets…every bad sci fi book trope I’ve ever read. And, the book is as serious as a train wreck, not at all something that might make you smile
But, I have to say, it was a bit like staring at a catastrophe. I kept trying to jump ahead or even stop reading…and kept coming back. The insights into peoples’ heads were amazing. Alam tries to break through the 3rd wall: something I’ve not seen particularly successful and I’m not exactly sure if it was here.
The one thing this book has is fantastically adult writing style, which is why it gets 2 stars.That’s not saying it was good, just that the author writes well
Really atmospheric and suffocating. Lots of astute observations on character. The premise definitely hits close to home right now, which depending on your appetite for it could be uncomfortable or cathartic (I found it to be the latter!) Would recommend.
Reading this book might increase your vocabulary. While interesting, the messaging was too obvious for my liking.
A troubling book with some excellent writing, but ultimately, a confusing ending. I couldn’t get my head about the point the author was making about race relations in the United States.
“They were equipped to handle certain fears. This was something else.”
This book had me at the edge of my seat the entire time! I don’t want to give too much away but the plot revolves around a Brooklyn family who rent a house on Long Island where they can “leave the world behind,” only to be surprised by visitors with news of a happening no one quite understands.
I’ve seen reviews that say the book is overwritten, but I found Alam’s writing colorful and vivid. The scenario the characters find themselves in makes you question how you would act in a similar situation and I found myself relating to their behavior and concerns, especially when we’re still in the middle of this global pandemic. Who do you trust in moments of crisis? What will you risk for your family’s safety? And can you find a way to go on when life as you know it may no longer exist?
I can’t say I enjoyed this book but I couldn’t put it down either. It made me think and freaked me out. It was dark and unsettling. It’s not a book for everyone but it’s one I won’t soon forget.
Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins and the author for an advanced copy to review.
I can truly say this book is unlike any I have read before. Amanda and Clay take their 2 children and head out on vacation. They have rented a house and are enjoying their vacation when in the middle of the night a knock on the door startles them. It’s G.H. and his wife Ruth who are the house’s owners and they come with a tale of a major black out all along the east coast. Can they stay there with them in the in-law quarters? Amanda and Clay’s vacation goes from wonderful to scary with the outside world shut down-no phones ,tv, or radio. What is going on in the world? Terrorist attack? WW3? Will they all be safe at the vacation house? This is a book I read in one evening as I NEEDED to know what was going on!!! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
My Review of
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND
By Rumaan Alam
Published by Ecco Books
Wow! Did I really read such a fascinating book that not only entertained me but had me contemplating what life is all about at the same time? I sure did. Bravo to the Author for the creative way in which some parts were told after a main character’s POV was given. It was insightful, informative, scary and sad at times. I’ve never read a book with this type of writing and am now going to be looking for other books in the future by this Author.
Amanda and Clay rent a beautiful house in a far out location in Long Island for their family vacation. They are looking for a peaceful getaway, away from the hustle and bustle of their routine life in New York City. They have their kids; son,Archie and daughter, Rosie who are heavily reliant on their phones and technology. So when they get out of range and don’t get service, no one is comfortable without being able to consult their phones or GPS.
Upon 24 hours after their arrival at the rental house, they discover that there is no reception there anymore either, which further isolates them from society. There are no other houses around; therefore no neighbors. But suddenly as they are about to go to bed, there is a knocking at the door.
It is the black couple who own the house and rented it to the family and have come to seek shelter from a major blackout that hit NYC. Amanda and Clay do not feel comfortable letting the couple stay the night but upon some negotiations they strike a deal. This deal doesn’t go as it was planned. Things begin to happen that cannot be explained and there is no TV service to get news or information as to what is going on in NYC or in the world. And then there are things happening to the children. Everyone is in fear….but from who? What?
You must pick this one up and read it.
These times bring strangers together and you begin to question what makes up the word family or friends and how far you’re willing to go in a situation out of your control.