This one took me a while to get into with Alam's writing style being slow in setting up the pace and the premise. When you stick to it though you get smacked in the face by what is to come!
I did have to come back to it a couple of times in the first few chapters but after reapproaching, I got hooked in by the plot and the presence and interactions of the characters as they themselves traversed that which unfolded around them. The eery uncertainty throughout keeps you on your toes as a reader and never really sure what you and the characters know and what is about to fly at you. Alam manages to subtly explore and provide commentary on everything from race and class to family, isolation, and dependency on our modern technology but all without a preaching patronising tone and all falling naturally within a fictional narrative.
Though not something I would immediately have picked and continued with, I'm glad that I pursued this book and its plot to take it in for its entirety rather than putting it aside too early on! Thanks to Bloomsbury as well as NetGalley for providing this to read and review.

A ridiculously readable and sharply observed thriller - some readers may be frustrated by the equivocal nature of the catastrophe, but I found the atmosphere of creeping, ambiguous dread very effective. The pasta recipe is great, too.

Amanda and Clay are middle aged white New Yorkers (Brooklyn, natch) who Airb’n’b a house upstate for a holiday with their early teenaged kids, Archie and Rose.  It’s hot, the house has a pool, mobile phones don’t work but the shop down the road stocks some good, although expensive, supplies. Plus, they’re on holiday! Time to treat themselves a bit. 

Early on in their stay, a knock at the door and it’s an older, well dressed Black couple – GH Washington and his wife, Ruth. They introduce themselves as the landlords, explain that something happened in New York City and they’d like to stay while they sort themselves out. 

It’s an interesting premise, and one which perhaps could have been wrapped up in a short story – not that it’s particularly long at 250ish pages – but you would have lost the quietly increasing tension and the growing sense of dread that comes through the pages. 

All of the characters get a say, you hear what they all think of what’s happening (or not) and this I’d say is one of the criticisms I have – they weren’t different enough and sometimes I found myself checking who was talking – was it Ruth, or Rose? Clay or Archie? Amanda or GH?

It’s a subtle exploration of unconscious bias, from all of the characters. Amanda is suspicious of the older couple, with oblique and direct references to their skin colour. While that is unacceptable, it was easy to imagine what I would do in that situation – I might be suspicious too, strangers turning up in the middle of the night in your holiday home due to a mystery ‘event’. They clearly know what’s in the house and have keys to the locked cupboards,  so the 60 year olds aren’t staging a home invasion. Similarly though, Ruth is uncomfortable with strangers in their house, and judges them for their dirty dishes and lack of clothing. To be honest, I thought it was a bit weird too, but I guess that’s an indication of where there thoughts are in this weird limbo. 

There have been some comparisons to Jordan Peele’s 2017 film, “Get Out” in this, where Daniel Kaluuya’s character visits his girlfriend’s super liberal parents with horrific results. I can see the comparison, but I also saw a lot of his 2019 film, “Us” – holiday homes, white people drinking white wine, different people laying claim to a life, to property. They don’t know what happened, but they might not be able to return to New York. What then? They share the house forever, pool resources?

I enjoyed reading this – I liked the prose even though sometimes it was over stylised. I wanted to know more about the characters, even though I didn’t like any of them, really. I also liked that it specifically didn’t do what I dislike in books – when the plot talks of that Big Thing that happened a Long Time Ago. It basically did the opposite, because as the reader you get to know little future flash forwards on what happens to that character or that place, even though they don’t know it yet. I liked being in on the details, sharing the story glory. 

I am also not surprised that it’s been sold to Netflix to be adapted and directed by Sam Esmail, who also created Homecoming, and Dr Robot. With Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in starring roles (presumably as GH and Amanda), it looks to be shaping up to be interesting. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the DRC – this book is available to buy now from all good bookshops.

This took me a while to get into - Alam has a unique writing style (for me) and it’s very slow pace. But it started to get under my skin with its uneasiness and creepiness. There’s great examination into many themes; race, class, family, youth, isolation, dependency on modern tech, and they’re all done with a leisurely pace. But it’s during these moments that Alam will throw in an unsettling moment that turns up the creep factor. This is a short read and I would have enjoyed a longer read with more creep. (Does that make me twisted?) I really felt Bird Box vibes with this read and similarly I’ll be looking forward to the Netflix adaptation.

I love that book and I've been recommended it it to everybody who asks (or not). Understated yet powerful, simple yet effective it left me in tatter. 

The language is beautiful and I've rarely seen an author being able to create such an unsettling atmosphere with so few words. 

Loved it.

Slow to start and then it hits you in the face like a ton of bricks! 
I loved this will they/won't they style, such an interesting pretence for a novel, will definitely be hand selling this a lot this year.

Leave The World Behind left me totally unsatisfied and confused. I just didn't understand the point of it at all. From the synopsis it sounded like it would be action packed and creepy but it wasn't either of those. 99% of the book was build up and I just spent the entire time waiting for things to notch up and for something to ACTUALLY HAPPEN! Because literally, NOTHING happened  in the entire book. 
A family rent a cabin from another couple for the week but one night the owners turn up and tell the family that something major is happening, possibly something apocalyptic, and that they need to stay in the cabin to protect themselves. The TV stations and internet are initially reporting something seeming to start but then everything goes dead and there's no way to find out what's actually happening. I normally absolutely love apocalyptic books so I was really, really excited to read this book but once I started reading it I was just really, really excited for it to end so I could read something else! There was almost zero plot along with an abundance of verbose, never ending writing. Why use 10 words when you can use 100 right? And why the author felt the need to refer to characters' genitalia so frequently I have no idea, especially the childrens' genitals. 
Overall, not the book for me at all. If anyone was considering reading this book my advice would be to Leave The Book Behind!

I really enjoyed Leave The World Behind, and found it quite captivating. How prescient to read a tale of what appears to be global devastation at a time like this. Almost Carveresque with its economical descriptions, it was atmospheric and beguiling. This would appeal to fans of of DeLillo's White Noise and I will definitely be recommending it.

This book was well written, however, I did feel like there was a lot of build up, and I found the ending to ultimately be unsatisfying. This may be one for other readers

“She walked down the steps onto the damp grass and the deer just watched her, barely curious. She hadn’t even seen that there was another beside it – no more…
…Had she been up higher, she’d have understood that there were hundreds, more than a thousand, more than that, even.” 

Never has a description of deer been so utterly terrifying.

This is the first of Rumaan Alam's novels that I have read, and it had me feeling tense, terrified and thrilled all at once, in a way I found simply mind-blowing. For me this is a masterpiece and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

In Leave The World Behind, we meet Amanda, Clay and their two children Rosie and Archie (I’m not sure that we ever know their surname). A wonderful, vivid sense of place is established from the very first chapter, which paints such a detailed picture of a family of four in a car. We’re seeing who they are as a family, how they think, their reliance on technology and being connected, the state of their car, their smells, in just a few pages. It’s just them in their own bubble off on holiday to a big house in remote part of Long Island. And it starts off so well “Well the sun was shining, they felt that boded well…”

My my what a false sense of security, because reading back, I think this is perhaps a teaser to the way in which the author builds a whole unsettling world - outwards from the shelter of a safe ‘bubble’ which later takes the form of a lavish, isolated, AirBnB rental home. We like the central characters, spend the rest of the novel fearful of and questioning everything else outside of that boundary. The turning point is a knock on the door late into the evening, and the arrival of two strangers.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the beautiful conflict between a sense of urgency and stillness throughout which is also reflected in the vivid and evocative prose. This has us the reader viewing characters, their actions, and human nature through a microscopic lens and really builds the tension throughout. It will leave you hungry for more and racing through chapter after chapter. 

Amanda and Clay are very real characters, and amidst an unnerving backdrop I felt the author interwove and explored themes of parenthood, racism, classism, relationships, and our reliance on technology in the modern world, really well.

What is happening and who can be trusted all remain to be seen.

Oh my goodness.....this book is brilliant. Tense, scary and disturbing. A family take a holiday in remote part of Long Island, but after an unknown 'event' in the city, the Black owners of the house arrive one evening, seeking help. This turns everything on its head and despite not knowing what has happened, we go on the terrifying journey alongside the novel's characters. It's a thrilling, dystopian vision of the future. I urge you to read it.

I hate to not finish a title but I just couldn't get on with this I'm sorry to say. I know others who have read it, said to stick with it and, while I had a sense of foreboding in the build up, it was just too slow moving for me. I was over half halfway and it hadn't moved on enough to keep me hooked. Thank you for the opportunity to read a digital copy, I shall perhaps revisit at a later time.

“Leave the World Behind” is a strange and alarming novel that forces the reader to wonder about the individual and collective responses towards the unknown. A white middle-class couple, Amanda and Clay, and their two children are vacationing in a remote Airbnb, when an older black couple who owns the house arrives unexpectedly one evening looking for shelter. Something is happening, but the information is not available, instead, the fear of a mysterious event, some sort of inevitable catastrophe, starts looming over everyone’s heads. We follow people battling their own fears, prejudices and instincts as they face an unknown danger. The tone of the book is gripping and unsettling, the author hints constantly about the great catastrophe as we get glimpses of the people and nature reacting to it. He lets the readers into characters heads, showing us how the individuals react towards the situation and ways in which people deal with them. A powerful and disturbing picture of the world not dissimilar to the one we live in, “Leave the World Behind” is a story that hits close to home and leaves the reader disturbed and spooked.

I had such high hopes for this, but within the first few chapters, I realised that this wasn't the book for me. 

The writing style, the language and descriptions used and the feel didn't sit well with me. In fact, the blurb made this book sound like it was going to hit the ground running, what I got inside felt dull and I never felt engaged with the characters nor the story.

This was so interesting, billed as a literary dystopian thriller it was all of those things and none of them - all at once. 

Telling the story of a white family, Amanda and Clay and their 12 and 15 year old kids who are in their rented get away house when there is a knock at the door...

It’s the owners of the house, a black couple who want to come in, as the power is out in the city, and there’s rumours of disaster....

What follows is an examination of racial, cultural and class bias, how we interact with our children and how we react when we think our way of life might be ending.

The disaster isn’t defined - or even confirmed - and isn’t a part of the story - it’s a microcosm of our reactions.

It’s page turning and the mystery of what happens is a great driver to keep reading. The style fluctuates between literary and quite simple and is very effective. 

As I get more distance from it, I realise it probably won’t stay with me. It didn’t affect me on a deeper level, as I couldn’t empathise with the main family and their decisions were very removed from any action I would take in their shoes. They were useless in a crisis, terrible with their children and at one point didn’t even get medical attention for someone who very clearly needed it. 

Worth reading, and I can very much see how easily it could be someone’s favourite, but there was a disconnect emotionally for me.

"Amanda 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. 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 phone service – it's hard to know what to believe."

Have you ever read a book so fast it felt like you were racing the narrator to get there first? Addictive and engrossing.

An enjoyable read but not one that will particularly stay with me for long. I was expecting there to be more questioning and distrust between the 2 families that found themselves forced together as the world turned on it's side.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Leave the World Behind’ by Rumaan Alam in exchange for an honest review.

This novel left me reeling! It’s a restrained work of literary speculative fiction, yet extraordinary in its scope. It is almost play-like in its small cast of characters and the atmospheric woodland setting. 

New Yorkers Amanda and Clay head with their teenage son and daughter for a holiday in a remote corner of Long Island where they have rented a luxury home for the week. Yet as they are settling in there is a late night knock at the door. Standing there are an older couple, Ruth and G.H. Washington, who announce themselves as the house owners.

They are in a panic and bring news that a sudden blackout had hit New York City causing them to head back to their country home. Yet with the internet and TV down and no phone service, can Amanda and Clay trust this couple? 

That Amanda and Clay are white and middle class and the Washingtons are black and wealthy bring aspects of racism and class into the narrative. At one point Amanda thinks to herself: “This didn’t seem to her like the sort of house where black people lived,” and then questions why that thought had so easily come to her. After some awkwardness the two couples work together in order to figure out what’s going on. 

Odd things happen, including the local deer behaving in strange ways. Then there’s the noise. “This was a noise, yes, but one so loud that it was almost a physical presence, so sudden because of course there was no precedent. There was nothing (real life!), and then there was a noise. Of course they’d never heard a noise like that before. You didn’t hear such a noise; you experienced it, endured it, survived it, witnessed it. You could fairly say that their lives could be divided into two: the period before they’d heard that noise and the period after.”

The hope that this is just something minor and explainable contrasts with the universal narrator providing tantalising glimpses of events that are occurring in the wider world. 

I consider this one of the best novels that I have read in 2020. Given its release during the pandemic, it effectively identifies the disquiet running through society and even the denial of reality evident in some quarters. 

I expect that it will be quickly hailed as a modern classic to stand alongside works such as Cormac McCarthy's ‘The Road’. I also feel that its multilayered narrative and accessibility will make it a popular choice for reading groups. I certainly will be suggesting it to mine for 2021.

No surprise given its quality and topicality that it has been quickly optioned by Netflix.

I don't even know what genre this is. Is it horror? Psychological thriller? Apocalyptic? Family drama? I'd say that "Leave The World Behind" is all of these and more. Rumaan Alam's nerve-wracking novel is terrifyingly plausible. The tension just continues to ramp up throughout, worsened by the fact that we don't know exactly what's going on. I hear there's a major Netflix production in the pipeline so I look forward to that too.

This is a shape shifting book. It begins as a thriller. Amanda , Clay and their children have hired an Air B and B house in a rural location well away from the city. On their first night a couple arrive who claim to be the owners who want to stay as some sort of mass blackout has happened. Should they trust GH and Ruth the black "owners"? 

Already the author has taken an anthropological approach, dissecting social class, attitudes to race, parenting and much more. Now the novel shifts shape again as it becomes apparent that there has been some sort of disaster and none of the adults knows what to do. The son becomes sick and there are strange phenomena like 100s of deer, flamingos in the pool, a strange loud noise.etc.  With no links to the outside world what can they do?

In the novel Suite Francaise, Nemirovsky looks at what happens when Paris is evacuated and the "trappings" of society mean nothing in the struggle for survival with basic human needs of food, water and shelter.  Alam does some of this and hints at worse to come.

I was wondering, like the characters, about the nature of the disaster. Was it terrorist related, linked to climate change or something else?

Amanda and Clay are well "dissected" but I am not sure that enough attention was given to GH and Ruth, maybe because of the plot impetus?

However it was a thought provoking, twister of a book about what it is to be human.