Rumaan Alam – författare

Semester.

Ett sommarhus i oväntad radioskugga.

Två privilegierade familjer som plötsligt tvingas dela på utrymmet.

En katastrof.

Rumaan Alams "Lämna världen bakom dig" nominerades till National Book Award, klättrade på försäljningslistorna och hyllades av en enig kritikerkår när den kom ut i USA hösten 2020. Romanen har filmatiserats för Netflix, med Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali och Myha'la i rollerna.

“A sparkling debut.” (People)

“Smart, sharp, and beautifully made, Rumaan Alam’s portrait of two childhood best friends transitioning into their adult lives is vividly rendered, set against a tantalizing background of moneyed New York City that is impossible to resist.” (Emma Straub, author of The Vacationers)

From the bestselling author of Leave the World Behind, an irresistible debut about the changing relationship between two best friends navigating early adulthood against a backdrop of privileged New York City

As close as sisters for twenty years, Sarah and Lauren have been together through high school and college, first jobs and first loves, the uncertainties of their twenties and the realities of their thirties.

Sarah, the only child of a prominent intellectual and a socialite, works at a charity and is methodically planning her wedding. Lauren—beautiful, independent, and unpredictable—is single and working in publishing, deflecting her parents’ worries and questions about her life and future by trying not to think about it herself. Each woman envies—and is horrified by—particular aspects of the other’s life, topics of conversation they avoid with masterful linguistic pirouettes.

Once, Sarah and Lauren were inseparable; for a long a time now, they’ve been apart. Can two women who rarely see one other, selectively share secrets, and lead different lives still call themselves best friends? Is it their abiding connection—or just force of habit—that keeps them together?

With impeccable style, biting humor, and a keen sense of detail, Rumaan Alam deftly explores how the attachments we form in childhood shift as we adapt to our adult lives—and how the bonds of friendship endure, even when our paths diverge.

NAMED A RECOMMENDED BOOK OF 2018 BY:Buzzfeed • The Boston Globe •  The Millions • InStyle • Southern Living • Vogue • Popsugar • Kirkus • The Washington Post • Library Journal • Real Simple • NPR

“With his unerring eye for nuance and unsparing sense of irony, Rumaan Alam’s second novel is both heartfelt and thought-provoking.”   — Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere

From the bestselling author of Leave the World Behind, a novel about the families we fight to build and those we fight to keep

Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.

Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently.

Written with the warmth and psychological acuity that defined his debut, Rumaan Alam has crafted a remarkable novel about the lives we choose, and the lives that are chosen for us.

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction)

A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher''s Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe

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

From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: 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 a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other? 

Now a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction

One of Barack Obama's Summer Reads

A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe

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

From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: 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 a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other? 

Amanda și Clay pleacă în vacanță împreună cu copiii lor, departe de agitația din New York, într-un colț îndepărtat din Long Island, unde urmează să stea într-o casă luxoasă, închiriată pentru o săptămână. În prima zi, adulții cumpără cantități enorme de mâncare, dulciuri și băuturi scumpe și profită din plin de piscină. Copiii stau cu ochii lipiți de televizor și de telefoane. Noaptea, însă, paradisul lor se destramă odată cu bătăile în ușă ale unui cuplu în vârstă, de culoare: Ruth și G.H., proprietarii casei, pe care nu-i întâlniseră niciodată personal, aduc vestea că în New York a avut loc o pană de curent, care a lăsat orașul în beznă. În împrejurări tot mai alarmante, cele două familii sunt puse la încercare: Câtă încredere să aibă unii în alții? Este casa de vacanță, izolată de civilizație, un loc în care să se simtă în siguranță? Și, în definitiv, ce s-a întâmplat în lumea de afară, pe care au vrut să o lase în urmă? Rumaan Alam scrie un roman provocator și plin de suspans despre complexitatea misiunii de părinte, despre rasă și clase sociale, despre relevanța unor principii și valori în situații de criză extremă.

„Cea mai bună carte pe care o puteți citi în acest moment... O cursă teribilă perfect construită și, în același timp, un roman de idei, Lasă lumea în urmă combină tehnica narativă iscusită, o perspectivă nemiloasă asupra culturii consumeriste și câteva momente cu adevărat șocante... O lectură excepțională care vă va urmări multă vreme după ce veți parcurge în goană ultimele pagini.“ USA Today

„Atât de inteligent și atât de subtil, încât atrage cititorul într-o falsă impresie de siguranță și stăpânire a situației... Inițial, cartea pare să fie despre căsătorie și familia modernă, priorități și alegeri, despre felul în care se măsoară succesul în secolul XXI – atâta tot. Dar este mult mai mult de atât... Perfect sincronizat cu incertitudinea lumii în care trăim.“ Library Journal

Semester.

Ett sommarhus i oväntad radioskugga.

Två privilegierade familjer som plötsligt tvingas dela på utrymmet.

En katastrof.

Rumaan Alams "Lämna världen bakom dig" nominerades till National Book Award, klättrade på försäljningslistorna och hyllades av en enig kritikerkår när den kom ut i USA hösten 2020. Romanen har filmatiserats för Netflix, med Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali och Myha'la i rollerna.

Semester.

Ett sommarhus i oväntad radioskugga.

Två privilegierade familjer som plötsligt tvingas dela på utrymmet.

En katastrof.

Rumaan Alams "Lämna världen bakom dig" nominerades till National Book Award, klättrade på försäljningslistorna och hyllades av en enig kritikerkår när den kom ut i USA hösten 2020. Romanen har filmatiserats för Netflix, med Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali och Myha'la i rollerna.