There isn’t a mobile phone signal nor is there any internet. They’re renting it for a week and it appeals precisely because of its remoteness. Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam is an extraordinary book ostensibly about an unknown, catastrophic event but is also an examination of race, class and family.Īmanda and Clay have travelled to the Hamptons with their teenage children Archie and Rose for a vacation at a secluded and remote house. 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?Īn impossibly compelling literary thriller about the world we live in now, Rumaan Alam’s novel is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped in moments of crisis – and how the most terrifying situations are never far from reality. 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.īut with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken.

About The BookĪ magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrongĪmanda 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 they’ve rented for the week. I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Book review leave the world behind