Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Leave the World Behind: A Novel
    Leave the World Behind: A Novel
    Leave the World Behind: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Leave the World Behind: A Novel

    Written by Rumaan Alam

    Narrated by Marin Ireland

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Now a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam

    A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

    Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction

    One of Barack Obama's Summer Reads

    A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe

    A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.

    From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

    Amanda 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. 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 cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

    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 other? 

    Editor's Note

    National Book Award shortlist…

    A simple premise belies the provocative racial themes that unfold in this slow burn thriller nominated for the National Book Award in Fiction. A white Brooklyn family rents a luxurious house in the Hamptons for a weeklong getaway, but they’re barely settled in when there’s a late night knock at the door. It’s an older Black couple claiming to be the owners who rented the house out, but they’re back due to a severe power outage in the city. With no internet or cell phone access in this remote area, it’s difficult to verify what’s really going on. The tension keeps ratcheting up until the pulse-pounding end. Netflix has already scooped up the movie rights with Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali to star.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 6, 2020
    ISBN9780063033504
    Leave the World Behind: A Novel
    Author

    Rumaan Alam

    Rumaan Alam is the author of the novels Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother, and the instant New York Times bestseller Leave the World Behind. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Bookforum, and the New Republic, where he is a contributing editor. He studied writing at Oberlin College and lives in New York with his family.

    More audiobooks from Rumaan Alam

    Related to Leave the World Behind

    Related audiobooks

    Family Life For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Bucksaw

      Jun 3, 2019

      From the back seat of the car, Benjamin read the gold-lettered sign at the edge of the rolling green lawn and said, “Why do they call it a correctional facility?” He’d meant only to think the question, rather than speak it, but lately, more and more,

      23 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Okay, Okay, Okay

      Dec 1, 2023

      Okay, Okay, Okay
      9 min read

    • Article

      1181 Durfee Avenue

      Jan 5, 2021

      1181 Durfee Avenue
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Posting

      Jun 27, 2023

      The Posting
      35 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2023

      It’s Tuesday and my partner tells meI smell of vacation—so, salt, pine needles,perhaps cantaloupe—depending onthe Tuesday. As a child in the woods,I woke every morning to bad hair daysand mountain breath. Rain-water collectedin gullies of blue tarps

      4 min read

    • Article

      Cherubs

      Jul 5, 2023

      Cherubs
      10 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      This Family Saga Finds Grace And Beauty In Ordinary Lives, Fully Lived

      Jun 10, 2021

      Simon Van Booy's new novel Night Came With Many Stars follows several generations of a Kentucky family, their crossroads and choices, their curses and hard memories, their luck and their chances.

      3 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      Paltry Gestures

      Jan 5, 2021

      Paltry Gestures
      6 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: 'We Had A Thing For Cher, And Now We Knew Where To Find Her'

      Oct 2, 2018

      It's been nearly 40 years since I've lived in Los Angeles. I still visit every year or so and am always struck by how surpassingly pleasant it is, and how ... floaty. There's a buoyancy particular to my hometown, one I feel nowhere else. I'm an inch

      4 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      Jester-necked pile of ideasfattening by the cutting board.I have known the summer wall,it says slowly. The hillside facessouth into the valley.Dew on the tomato plants.Anything that grows, swarms,bunches itself against a stayand cannot stay. The vine

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty

      Sep 8, 2021

      MUM IS MISSING Liane Moriarty
      7 min read

    • Article

      Splash

      Feb 9, 2018

      Splash
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Air You Breathe

      Aug 20, 2018

      The Air You Breathe
      23 min read

    • Article

      To The Manure Born

      Jun 1, 2020

      To The Manure Born
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ruthless Innocence

      Jul 8, 2022

      Ruthless Innocence
      3 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      We All Have Our Stories

      Mar 1, 2021

      We All Have Our Stories
      14 min read

    • Article

      A Double Life

      Dec 7, 2020

      Sadie is in the kitchen, already dressed in school uniform, fastening the clips on the violin she chose for her most recent birthday, when Gabriela heads downstairs the following morning. Seven years old: how the hell did that happen? Briefly, she wo

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Leave the World Behind

    3.5/5

    1,809 ratings147 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Kept my interest but hated the ending…not my favorite book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very well written and the wording was amazing actually. I felt like I could really see the characters as this story played out. With all that was going on it seemed similar to the panic of 2020. Although what happened in this story was far worse in my opinion. It seemed the kids were stronger than the adults. I wish the ending would have been more telling of what actually happened even though I can guess. It was a great listen and I stayed engaged during my commutes to work and running errands around town.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Odd, disturbing, and thrilling...I couldn’t put this one down. I’m still trying to form my thoughts.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Great book, terrible abrupt ending. I want to know what happened.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      The premise is an intriguing one. The book describes everyday life in sensuous detail while something grander is occurring. It gets old and repetitive though. This book was too slow a burn for me.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I was spellbound to the end. The fact that the book deals with key themes like race, class. climate disaster, obsession with technology, .materialism - and still be a page turner - terrific. I would have liked to know a bit more about the owners of the house, but it's okay. They held on to their dignity and humanity despite the constant whining and microaggressions of their guests. I would gladly join GH and Ruth to meet the inevitable.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Terrifying in an understated way. Character-driven from the very start. Lyrical and interesting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This book is a bit different than the rest of its apocalyptic kind. I enjoyed how it portrays normal people with their thoughts, and how it can hit "too close to home", regarding all the racist, classist, education and gender preconceptions that our society teaches since birth. Even when we work hard to get rid of them, some just stay as a first response, to be corrected through action later.
      The whole idea of the apocalypse being triggered by the mal function of our technology, is a fascinating concept to me.
    • 3/5
      Havent seen the movie. It is a fine read. Not a lot of plot. And the payoff for me wasnt worth it.
    • 1/5
      I don’t know how I got to chapter 17. What a boring story. Nothing interesting in it but the regular lives of regular people.
    • 1/5
      The book and movie both sucked especially the end. How tf are you gonna end a book with a little girl watching friends ?
    • 5/5
      I’d heard good things about the Netflix film, so I decided to listen to the audiobook first. It was such a real and raw story of the side of disaster movies that is usually never told. Honestly it was a little disturbing to listen in today’s climate, but it made me think.
    • 2/5
      Definitely not a book I would recommend. It dragged on and on with unnecessary details. Lots of unanswered questions yet none that leave me pondering, rather just wondering why I kept reading at all. Will be interested to see if the movie coming out can make a decent movie out of what I read as a nominal to poor read.
    • 2/5
      This book has received mixed reviews. I tried to listen passed the first few chapters but the writing style made it difficult to hold my interest. The overly flamboyant use of adjectives is distracting. Example, a dead deer carcass is not bloated or swollen but « pneumatic ». A few instances like this wouldn’t be a big deal but pretty much every sentence is like this. I can’t describe it otherwise. Sometimes, a more simple vocabulary is better at creating that raw tense feeling. If you really want to know the story, there’s a Netflix movie version of it. Not for me.
    • 2/5
      very atmospheric but I didn’t like the atmosphere ! or the characters
    • 1/5
      Waste of time. Errors, inaccuracies and disgusting. Wish I had skipped this one.
    • 2/5
      I went back and forth for so long on whether or not to read this novel, but after seeing the trailer for the movie coming out soon on Netflix I decided to give it a go as the trailer seemed very intriguing. After finally reading the novel I was left very disappointed.

      Maybe the movie's trailer hyped me up too much, but this book was a dud for me. Pretty much nothing happens. Yes, there are things that take place to "progress" the story, but it's really just a whole lot of nothing. The plot is so vague and the author does little to fill in any gaps for the ready to really understand just what is happening in the world beyond the house our characters find themselves in. The plot moves so sluggishly at times, that I almost stopped reading because I was getting bored.

      There is also too much unnecessary content in the novel that does little to nothing to help advance the plot. There are pages devoted to sex, bodily fluids, and teenage masturbation that add absolutely nothing to the overall narrative.
    • 2/5
      Lots of details about their individual lives and thoughts and expecting these to lead to something, but never materialized. Events not very realistic under circumstances- power outage: losing teeth, big bang, deer, flamingos ??? Not my cup
    • 5/5
      Drama with horror elements. If you like the style of The Happening, you'll like this.

      Absolutely loved it. Finished in 2 days. Great writing, fresh premise, eerie, and 100% possible.

      I started it 2 or 3 days after the terror attack on Israel. This novel's timeliness makes it even better.

      Definitely hooked.
    • 1/5
      Don’t waste your time. The books drags on with no resolve.
    • 2/5
      Too many details. Couldn’t wait for it to be over. You never find out what it is in the end.
    • 3/5
      Well there were many options to add to the race differences if the writer just left out the ridiculous nonsense writing like clay driving around for nothing and many other gibberish. I liked that the two couples became somewhat of friends and the children were cared for by both couples. End of the world leaves no reason or ending. My guess is the writer wants us to think about our own behavior and ponder this book in different ways so I totally get it and many readers will like this. It is in my own personal opinion a sci-fi book not a thriller although it has lots of suspense don’t expect a reason for it at the end.
    • 5/5
      I want to READ portions of this book. I'm anxious to see the show. I need to look it up on Netflix. Highly recommended!
    • 2/5
      The author’s constant racial overtones of “ bad white people” made it hard to listen to. She’s far too descriptive with unnecessary details that make me think she’s run out of content or just using fillers when she could have gotten more miles if she had crafted a better ending.
    • 5/5
      JFC!!!! This book had me on the edge of my seat! Best mail biter since Bird Box. Some people complained about the nonstop inner thoughts and dialogue of the characters but for me that helped make it even more suspenseful. I liked all the crazy tangents their minds wandered off to.

      Best book of the year so far!
    • 4/5
      Beautiful writing. Bit of a psychological thriller. The moments is suspense and tension go up an down but it is true the ending leaves you pretty much hanging with more questions than answers.
    • 5/5
      Wow! Set me on edge. I’ve heard they are planning to make a movie of it. I’m not sure how successful it will be, compared to the book itself. So much of the density and movement of this book take place inside peoples’ heads. Don’t know how they’re going to do that. Sure, they can make a movie out of the actual events but it’ll be interesting to see how and if they communicate the internal aspects of the novel. The descriptions of place and action are exquisite.
      I listened to this as an audio book. The reader was a perfect match for the story. So often the reader’s voice can doom an audiobook. Not so in this case.
    • 4/5
      Wow, this storyline was out there! I cannot even begin to describe it, but I absolutely loved it. Definitely an end-of-the-world novel. I have to admit that the first chapters of the book seemed a little drawn out. I had a hard time figuring out where the story was going, until Ruth and G.H. White arrived. Then the book went on a wild ride. This is one of those books where you have to be OK with not having all the answers, just go along with the story. It reminded me a lot of Emily St. John Mandel’s novels, Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility. I am starting to realize that I do appreciate a dark end-of-the-world type novel, don’t ask me where that came from. I listened to the audiobook and I think it really helped me stay focused on the story. But I am also glad to have a hard copy of the book, I am definitely going to reread this book with my flags and highlighter to make note of significant passages. It will be interesting to see how this is adapted to film on Netflix, starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, Kevin Bacon, and Mahershala Ali, what a cast! The release date is currently December 7, 2023.
    • 5/5
      Gorgeous writing. I still don’t quite know what happened but still great story telling.
    • 5/5
      great narration good mASSAge in this audio book this boook .
      this was a great book excellent feature i was appreceate by the story . its a great thinker