Feeling like all there is to do in the world is hunker down with a good book? Yes, us too. May we, therefore, suggest Rumaan Alam's Leave The World Behind? If you're tempted, we have an exclusive taster extract for you below.
The book is Alam's third novel, and just out in America, where it's gathering huge critical acclaim - and being dubbed as the most 2020 of novels possible.
The book is also set for a huge Netflix adaptation. Sam Esmail, the creator of Mr. Robot and Homecoming, is set to write and direct Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in the show. It will be the first time they've been on screen together since 1993’s The Pelican Brief.
So, what's the book (out November 12) all about?
READ MORE: All The Books To Read Before They Hit The Big Screen
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?
Read out extract below if you want more...
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, is out in hardback on November 12. (Bloomsbury Publishing, £14.99)
Our exclusive extract
There was a knock at the door. A knock at the door of this house, where no one knew they were, not even the global positioning system, this house near the ocean but also lost in farmland, this house of red bricks painted white, the very material the smartest little piggy chose because it would keep him safest. There was a knock at the door.
What were they supposed to do?
Amanda stood, frozen, a prey’s instinct. Gather your thoughts. “Get a bat.” That old solution: violence.
“A bat?” Clay pictured the flying mammal. “A bat?” He understood, then, but where would he get a bat? When had he last held a bat? Did they even have a baseball bat at home, and if they did, had they brought it on vacation? No, but when had they decided to forsake that American diversion? In their foyer on Baltic Street they had a clutch of umbrellas of varying degrees of broken, an extra windshield scraper, Archie’s lacrosse stick, some of those circulars, never asked for, a sheaf of coupons in rainproof plastic that would never biodegrade. Well, lacrosse was from the Indians, maybe that was more all-American. On a console table, beneath a framed photograph of Coney Island, there was a brass object, an artful little torque, the kind of made-in-China geegaw meant to add character to hotel rooms or model apartments. He picked it up but found it weighed nothing. Besides, what would he do, wrap his fingers around it, strike some stranger in the head? He was a professor.
“I don’t know.” Her whisper was built for the stage. Surely who- ever was on the other side of the door could hear her. “Who could it be?”
This was ridiculous. “I don’t know.” Clay put the little objet d’art back in its place. Art could not protect them.
There was another knock at the door. This time, a man’s voice. “I’m sorry. Hello?”
Clay could not imagine a killer could be so polite. “It’s nothing. I’ll get it.”
“No!” Amanda had this terrible flash of feeling, a premonition if the worst came to pass and passing paranoia if it did not. She did not like this.
“Let’s just calm down.” Maybe he was unconsciously channeling behaviors seen in films. He looked at his wife until she seemed to calm, like what tamers did with their lions, dominance and eye contact. He didn’t entirely believe in the act. “Get the phone. Just in case.” That was decisive and smart; he was proud of himself for having thought of it.
Amanda went into the kitchen. There was a desk, a cordless telephone, a 516 number. In her lifetime the cordless telephone had been both innovation and obsolete. They still had one at home, but no one ever used it. She picked it up. Should she press the button, dial the nine and then the one and wait?
Clay unbolted the lock and pulled open the door.
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