In Conversation: On Leave the World Behind

Bryan Washington is the author of the short story collection Lot, and also has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, BuzzFeed, Vulture, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Tin House, One Story, Bon Appétit, GQ, The Awl, and Catapult. He is a National Book Award 5 Under 35 honoree. In Memorial (Riverhead Books) we meet Benson and Mike, two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson’s a Black day care teacher, and they’ve been together for a few, good years — but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. When Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye — just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit. In Japan, Mike undergoes a transformation as he discovers the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck in an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike’s immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life. Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they’ve ever known. Entertainment Weekly called it “Wryly funny, gently devastating […] Washington’s hand is effortless […] in inviting you into a nuanced

Rumaan Alam is the author of Rich and Pretty, and That Kind of Mother. His writing has appeared in various publications including The New York Times, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, and Buzzfeed. Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation. It would mean 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. Then a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. The older couple who own the house arrive in a panic. A sudden blackout has swept the city — but with no TV, internet or phone service t’s hard to know what to believe. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? And are they safe from one other? In Leave the World Behind (Ecco) Rumaan Alam is keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class and explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis. In a starred review Publishers Weekly called it “Spectacular and ominous…. This illuminating social novel offers piercing commentary on race, class and the luxurious mirage of safety, adding up to an all-too-plausible apocalyptic vision.”