Alam R.: Leave the World Behind

*A 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 AGEIntense, incisive, I loved this and have still not quite shaken off the unease DAVID NICHOLLSSimply breathtaking . . .

An extraordinary book, at once smart, gripping and hallucinatory OBSERVER_______A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrongAmanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a holiday: 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 theyve rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G.

H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter. But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?_______SOON TO BE A MAJOR GLOBAL NETFLIX ADAPTATION STARRING DENZEL WASHINGTON AND JULIA ROBERTSFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2021A DAILY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES AND TIME BOOK OF THE YEAREveryone is talking about LEAVE THE WORLD BEHINDYou will probably need to read it in as close to one sitting as possible Sunday TimesA page-turner taking in themes of isolation, race and class GuardianA book that could have been tailor-made for our times The TimesA literary page-turner that will keep you awake even after it endsMail on SundayAn exceptional examination of race and class and what the world looks like when its ending Roxane GayA 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 VogueExplores complex ideas about privilege and fate with miraculous wit and grace Jenny OffillFor 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 TimesAlams achievement is to see that his genres traditional arc, which relies on the idea of aftermath, no longer makes sense. Today, disaster novels call for something different New YorkerRead it with the lights on Jenna Bush Hager, October Book Club pick.