Rumaan Alam’s novel Leave the World Behind isn’t even officially out yet, but it’s already one of the hottest books of the season, receiving an imprimatur from two influential book clubs.
Retailer Barnes and Noble and Today show co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager have both selected Alam’s book, which is slated for publication on Tuesday, as the latest pick for their clubs.
Alam’s novel—longlisted for the National Book Award and set to be adapted for a Netflix film with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts—follows a White family and a Black family staying together in a Hamptons vacation home after a mysterious blackout hits New York. A reviewer for Kirkus called the book “a riveting novel that thrums with suspense yet ultimately offers no easy answers.”
Alam addressed the unexpected timeliness of his novel in an interview with Kirkus, saying, “[Coronavirus] has provided a tangible way of talking about a discomfort that I think people have felt for a long time—this feeling of the end of history, or the end of time, or existence in a world that is changing in ways that people simply can’t predict.”
Barnes and Noble Vice President Jackie De Leo called Alam’s writing “striking, smart and brilliant.”
“Vibrant, tense and thrilling, it’s an absolute must-read and will leave you feeling like you need to talk about it with anyone and everyone around you,” De Leo said.
Hager, for her part, called the book “chilling and mysterious but also poignant and at times funny.”
“It is a suspense at its core, but to call it only a thriller discredits the incredible detail and intimacy with which the author writes about and understands family dynamics and race,” she said.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
