"Stupendously good...Simply breathtaking, full of moments of exquisite recognition, as terrifying and prescient as Cormac McCarthy's The Road...Leave the World Behind is an extraordinary book, at once smart, gripping and hallucinatory...When future generations (if that term doesn't sound over-optimistic at the moment) want to know what it was like to live through the nightmare of 2020, this is the novel they'll reach for"
Observer

"Would be resonant and terrifying even in a more normal year...In his dazzling prose, his fascination with catastrophe and his apparent ability to portend the future, Alam is a worthy descendant of Don DeLillo...You will probably need to read it in as close to one sitting as possible"
Sunday Times

"A sensation...A tense, atmospheric, splendidly written attempt to grapple with impending doom...Even in its infancy, Leave the World Behind was well poised to become the book of an era...A striking, unsettling novel"
Independent

"Without any exaggeration, I can honestly say that I devoured Leave the World Behind, in one greedy, uneasy gulp. It's a taut page-turner – one that starts out as a smart, knowing, contemporary comedy of manners, but quickly spirals into an apocalyptic nightmare so terrifyingly realistic that it sent shivers down my spine"
Daily Telegraph

"For the reader, the invisible terror outside in Leave the World Behind echoes the sense of disquiet today in a world convulsed by the pandemic. There are intense parallels between the unreality of life in the Long Island bolt-hole described in the book and lockdown...The novel excels in its dissection of modern liberal America and forces the reader to confront the limits of their own heroism in the face of disaster"
Financial Times