Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Maybe not the best audiobook choice for the day after a coup-attempt and the height of a global pandemic, but Leave the World Behind’s end-of-the-world omniscient narrator thoughtfully contemplates what matters, who we are, and, even as we are ignorant to the end of the world approaching, how we choose to behave. So inspirational…? We aspire and we have bad habits, we find comfort in what we throw into our grocery cart, we have real-life behavior and vacation week behavior, we judge people based on the interior of their homes and by their names, but when the end is in sight, what really matters? This is an intelligent, nuanced, work of literary fiction that pits the survival instincts of two couples against one another. It is a highly suspenseful, microscopic examination of just a few days of Amanda and Clay’s Airbnb vacation in the Hamptons. The home’s rightful owners, Ruth and GH, show up after an emergency in the city and even though distrust, fear and judgment are initial reactions, this novel illuminates the true qualities that bring peace to humans as the end looms near. And for that matter at any time.