Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped-and unexpected new ones are forged-in moments of crisis.Ī potentially interesting scenario here, though one rather overplayed and everywhere due to Covid, but the writing had me grating my teeth right from the start: 'they huddled and inspected like Caravaggio's Thomas and friends', 'his penis jerked itself towards the sun, a yoga salutation, bouncing, then stiff at the house's allure' - the prose is constantly over-written with a 'why use one word when you could use fifty?' attitude. Suspenseful and provocative, Rumaan Alam's third novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. 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 another? 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. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city.

are an older black couple-it's their house, and they've arrived in a panic. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.Īmanda 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.

Leave the world behind book