Subscribers receive:
- An exclusive signed edition of Leave the World Behind in a custom slipcase
- Other surprises!
In Rumaan Alam's enthralling Leave the World Behind, a family vacation serves as the backdrop for the possible end of the world. A family of four have rented a vacation house outside of New York City, but their relaxing week is cut short when an older couple arrives late at night, bearing news of a catastrophic blackout. Without access to the news or Internet, the two families must parse increasingly surreal glimpses of what's happening in the world, while navigating a shared space. This timely novel explores what it means to feel safe, and how personal moments are affected by class, race, and generational factors — and how those meanings are amplified by the tensions of survival. We're excited to present this captivating, atmospheric book as Indiespensable Volume 89, the final volume of 2020.
"Leave the World Behind is so many things — funny, sharp, insightful about modernity and race and parenthood and home — but at its core it’s a story of our shared apocalypse; a steady look at humanity in the moment it tumbles from a great height. I have not been this profoundly unnerved by a science fiction novel since Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go." — Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
"Rumaan Alam's witty, incisive take on the American privileged classes has always been hilarious, but there's a sinister shadow behind the satire in his latest book, as it becomes increasingly tense and unsettling. Alam has achieved a rare feat — a comic novel that is also genuinely terrifying." — Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will
"Leave the World Behind begs us to ask the most important questions. How do we let the other in? Where do we draw the borders of home? A prescient book, built for these strange times, sure to entrance and electrify." — Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark Dark