Leave the World Behind

Leave the World Behind (2020) by Rumaan Alam follows a white Brooklyn family renting a house on Long Island for the week, whose vacation is interrupted when the Black homeowners arrive at the door one night, claiming a massive blackout has hit New York City. The novel keeps its characters confined together in an uneasy domestic arrangement while something catastrophic and beyond understanding unfolds. Outside, they start to see and hear strange things: flamingos on the beach, deer massing in the yard, a grinding sonic noise that cracks teeth. Alam never explains what is happening, which is clearly the point. The disaster is experienced as pure anxiety, and also filtered through class and racial tensions that develop inside the house. Shortlisted for the National Book Award and adapted into a 2023 Netflix film.

Signed copy. Signed by Alam on the title page.

Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. New York: Ecco / HarperCollins, 2020. National Book Award shortlist (2020). ISBN: 9780062667632. #11291.
Fine in fine dust jacket.