---
product_id: 384628601
title: "Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick"
brand: "rumaan alam"
price: "C$1721"
currency: NIO
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.ni/products/384628601-leave-the-world-behind-a-read-with-jenna-pick
store_origin: NI
region: Nicaragua
---

# Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick

**Brand:** rumaan alam
**Price:** C$1721
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick by rumaan alam
- **How much does it cost?** C$1721 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ni](https://www.desertcart.ni/products/384628601-leave-the-world-behind-a-read-with-jenna-pick)

## Best For

- rumaan alam enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted rumaan alam brand quality
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## Description

Leave the World Behind: A Novel

## Images

![Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71QDde2IGkL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    You Will Either Love It Or Hate It.
  

*by L***R on Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020*

This book seems to garner strong opinions in the reviews, and after reading it, I can see why.  The opening is very simple: a family rents an isolated house out on Long Island for a vacation. Shortly after their arrival, the owners of the house show up with the news that something has happened, but it is not clear what that something was, and there is not an easy way to find out since all modern forms of communication have are not working.  Now at this point, there are many directions this story could go in.  I cannot count how many horror/thrillers I have seen start out with a similar premise.  But the author takes the story in a different direction, and I believe this is the source of many diverging opinions.  Rather than take the story in the familiar directions that we have seen similar tales go, the author chooses to focus on the most mundane things of the family's visit. The first part of their vacation and the people involved's inner thoughts.  In fact, the story has a very Closter phobic feel to it where the characters seem just as trapped in their own thoughts and emotions as they do by the events unfolding around them.  The anxiety of interacting with strangers on an intimate level comes off as just as bad as whatever it is that is going on in the outside world, and I believe that is what the title implies.  The disjointed feel to the narrative as it jumps from person to person adds to the feeling of confusion and disruption that is contrasted with what is conveyed in the characters' conversations. ( Something we have all done saying one thing while thinking another.) As events unfold very slowly ( most of the book takes place within a 48-hour time span), I could not help but wonder how I would behave in such a scary and disorienting situation and how my behavior would change if there were strangers there to witness it.  This is played out as the characters swing between overconfident speculation, hedonistic denial, and confused dread as events unfold. Simultaneously, the reader is provided with information that highlights the situation's seriousness without really explaining what the situation is. This is both these books' greatest strength and weakness.  Like most people, I am used to having stories be wrapped up in a clear conclusion at the end, where all is revealed, and the protagonists have a clear path forward to the future.  But too often, this type of ending seems lazy and simplistic.  This book avoids doing this with its ending and the style in which it is written.  While looking for some clear answers and a reassuring conclusion,  I do not believe that was the author's goal.  This book is more a study of human emotions and interactions. How we perceive others and how they perceive themselves and how we present ourselves to the world and look at from that perspective accomplishes its goal.  If you are looking for a neat survival story that hits all of the familiar marks, you will be sorely disappointed.  If you are looking for a story about human interactions and the contrast of how we present ourselves to the world as opposed to our inner thoughts, you will like this book.  I liked this book.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Huh?
  

*by J***E on Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2023*

For a book about the potential end of the world, this one was kind of boring if I'm being honest.  I'm sure there's some existential something or other I'm supposed to get out of it, but I do not see why Julia Roberts is helming the Netflix version coming out later this year.Amanda, Clay and their two kids rent a beautiful house in Upstate New York for the week.  Their second night there, an elderly black couple show up and say they're the homeowners.  That NYC is in a complete blackout and they fled the city and were hoping they could stay in their own in law suite.  While Amanda and Clay are suspicious, they're not really sure how to say no.Then strange things start happening, the tvs and phones don't work, a flock of flamingos bathes in the pool.  A sonic boom occurs.  Their son gets sick.  And then it ends.I guess this is about human nature and fear of the unknown but it was written in such flowery language that I found I really didn't care about the kale that was so green it was almost black.....

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Haunting
  

*by S***. on Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021*

I loved this book and I can't stop thinking about it. I do not think it was a good choice for Jenna's book club on the Today show, as evidenced by the multiple angry Karens in this review section.The mundane and often hateful inner thoughts of the upper-middle class Brooklyn couple were painful to read, but that's the whole point--they are not likeable people, but just as in the end of the world we will likely be forced to ally with people who annoy us, so we are forced to ally with Clay and Amanda. Alam's characterization of them felt especially damning to me since right down to their age and car, they are essentially my husband and me. But good writing makes you uncomfortable.The lists, words, items and objects piled on top of each other--this felt suffocating, and that's how it was meant to felt. To be able to write a story so spare that still can induce claustrophobia is a feat, and I'm jealous and thrilled that Alam did it. The same thing applies to his narration of the couple's sex life, which feels excessive. That's the idea. It is excessive, frightening, too much. It makes us think about why it affects us the way it does, the lack of boundaries, the "center-of-the-universe" quality that we hate in this white Brooklyn couple and their painfully average kids, and for a lot of readers (see Jenna's book club) that directs us back at ourselves. Sorry, not sorry etc.The idea that the world is ending around us and we at first don't notice it, then don't believe it, then don't know how to stop it, and finally realizing you can't stop it is chilling. The added realization that Clay and Amanda lead us to is that this is ever more painful--as a lot of us will discover--when we were once the center of the world. Like them, we'll be looking into the maw of our carefully constructed identities.The writing was beautiful, even where it felt overwhelming. Even when it revealed something ugly. Sometimes the language felt like it was covering the story, like the ground cover in a forest,  but that worked for me because it echoed in the narration--third person omniscient, which created a kind of noise out of multiple overlapping consciousnesses that I had to sift through in order to find out that, yes, the world was ending, that horrible noise was a sonic boom, and where the animals were coming from. It's there, it's just not as obvious as, say, a Stephen King novel might be. If you like things over-explained, this is not the book for you.I liked the Washingtons as characters and I thought they worked, especially watching as they realized their wealth was not protecting them from, first, Clay and Amanda and, then, from the apocalypse. They're self reflective, solid, and gracious--the embodiment of their home. Their consciousness is a relief from Amanda's endless self-obsession when it begins to appear--and somehow I felt frustrated on Ruth and GH's behalf that I couldn't hear more from them."Leave the World Behind" echoes "To the Lighthouse" in both form and story, where TTL conceives of the end of the world as World War One--at the time, that WAS the end of the world--LTWB conceives of the end of the world as essentially the logical conclusion of the Trump presidency. Which could also explain all the angry Karens.TLDR; this book is excellent, haunting, chilling, and not for everyone.

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*Product available on Desertcart Nicaragua*
*Store origin: NI*
*Last updated: 2026-03-08*