Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

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

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 with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and – with nowhere else to turn – they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple – and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?

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Leave the World Behind is another of the books recommended to me as part of my reading spa earlier this year.  It’s a novel that I’d heard of previously, but for some reason it hadn’t really grabbed me until my bibliotherapist talked me through it.  It proved to be an excellent recommendation.

The premise of the novel is deceptively simple and it’s all too easy to imagine yourself in the position that Amanda and Clay find themselves in when their holiday doesn’t go according to plan, wondering what you might do in their shoes.  From New York, they’ve hired a luxury house in the country for a week, fully intending to get away from it all and to enjoy some family time with their two children.  The house and location are perfect, and if the Wi-Fi and phone signal are a bit spotty, it only adds to the charm of the place and reinforces the intention to escape from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives. 

Their peace is interrupted late one night by a knock on the door.  A couple, introducing themselves as G. H. and Ruth, claim to be the owners of the property.  They also bring a story with them – a claim of a black out in New York, cause unknown, that has driven them from the city seeking the safety and security of their home, even though it has been let for the week.  Amanda and Clay have little choice but to let them in, albeit with reservations.  How do they know these people are who they say they are, and what could possibly have happened that won’t be quickly resolved?

This introduces a wonderful edge of tension to the novel.  Amanda and Clay – along with the reader – can’t help but wonder if G. H. and Ruth are being completely honest with them or whether they have some ulterior motive.  If they are being honest, why does their house still have power, and how much longer will it last for?  Alam builds this tension brilliantly – it’s not the out and out horror that some apocalyptic novels strive for, but I love the sense of being wrong-footed by the unknown and not knowing if there is anything to worry about whilst simultaneously spiralling into increasingly dark “what if” scenarios.  The tension makes this an utterly gripping read, even though it’s not an event driven novel.

This didn’t seem to her like the sort of house where black people lived.

Through Amanda, and to a lesser extent Clay, Alam highlights the prejudices that some still carry with them.  I don’t believe that either do anything to outwardly demonstrate any prejudice against G. H. and Ruth – although it’s not for me to say what is and isn’t racist – but their internal thoughts give them away.  They feel that they have to let this couple in as a way of proving their openness and acceptance of them, even while Amanda thinks that this is the sort of attitude that “a canny black criminal could take advantage of”.  Amanda even wonders if G.H. and Ruth are, respectively, the handyman and the maid.  It’s shocking for the reader and feels outdated, and yet it no doubt echoes the experiences that many still face.

Despite this, the two families soon learn to co-exist, and there’s a strange sense of keeping up appearances and a decidedly British – despite the American setting – “keep calm and carry on” attitude, even as they worry over events outside of their control.  Living with others, even temporarily, is strange, I think, and the discomfort on both sides is palpable as they must get used to each other’s habits.  It’s an effective contrast between the relaxed and carefree attitude of the family at the beginning of the novel and the worry that soon embeds itself in every thought and deed.  It’s a reminder of just how quickly our comfortable lives and rose-tinted spectacles can be torn away from us. 

Leave the World Behind is a tense and engaging novel exploring an ambiguous end of the world scenario of the “not with a bang but with a whimper” variety.  I found it to be deeply unsettling as it’s so easy to imagine yourself in this scenario, not knowing what’s going on, but aware that something is happening.  Recommended.