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Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

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 a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?

"Best Of" 2020 Lists

This is the time of year when “Best Of” lists are everywhere. These annual roundups always seem to spark lively discussions among readers as they reflect on their favorite books of the year. Although we at Bookreporter.com don’t have a “Best Of” list of our own, we’ve compiled a number of them for you here. See which of your top picks appear on these lists and which titles you feel should've been included but weren't. Perhaps you’ll even find some books to add to your reading list as we head into the new year!

Week of November 22, 2021

Paperback releases for the week of November 22nd include LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam, a magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong; WAR LORD, the final installment in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales series, chronicling the epic story of the making of England --- the basis for the hit Netflix series "The Last Kingdom"; and TWENTY, a provocative and timely thriller from Harper Lee Prize winner James Grippando, in which Jack Swyteck and his family are caught in the crossfire after a deadly school shooting claims 20 casualties --- Florida’s fifth mass shooting in as many years.