When future generations (if that term doesn't sound over-optimistic at the moment) want to know what it was like to live through the nightmare of 2020, this is the novel they'll reach for * Observer * Would be resonant and terrifying even in a more normal year. Leave the World Behind is an extraordinary book, at once smart, gripping and hallucinatory. Simply breathtaking, full of moments of exquisite recognition, as terrifying and prescient as Cormac McCarthy's The Road. 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? An 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. But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. 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. 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. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.Īmanda 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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

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Leave the world behind book review