One of the year’s most talked-about books, Rumaan Alam‘s Leave the World Behind is a tautly dystopic story of a family vacation interrupted by unexpected visitors and unseen disaster. Hailed a darkly witty page-turner set against the end of the world, its fans include Carmen Maria Machado, who wrote, ‘I have not been this profoundly unnerved since Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.’ Alam speaks with Osman Faruqi about a novel seemingly tailor-made for our times, exploring race, class and privilege in a world undone by catastrophe.

Recorded for MWF in 2021.