When the end of the world as we know it comes about in Rumaan Alam's gripping third novel, Leave the World Behind, the two families brought together in the indulgent surroundings of a Long Island country retreat feel, well, uneasy. There's no big moment, no flash of white light, alien invasion or virus. Just a lack of mobile phone coverage and television, strange animal gatherings and, intermittently, a deafening noise. A noise to be "experienced, endured, survived, witnessed".
And so Clay and Amanda, on holiday in this luxurious setting with their children Archie and Rose, are a bit put out when their newsfeeds aren't working properly, and irritated when the wealthy black owners of the house, GH and Ruth, knock on the door to ask for refuge from a power outage elsewhere. Alam, the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, is brilliant on the subtle racism endemic in privileged white lives. "This didn't seem to her like the sort of house where black people lived," thinks Amanda. But they are forced together in lockdown-style isolation that becomes increasingly panicked.
If Leave the World Behind – which was pipped to America's National Book Award this week by Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown – sounds remarkably prescient, then the whole point of this novel is that we've had all the warning signs that things might be going wrong for some time, socially, economically, racially and ecologically. Most simply choose to look the other way.
In the real world, you're not going to get Poirot gathering characters together in the drawing room and explaining everything; in reality, you don't know the ending and, you know, that should frighten us
"It's a strange place to inhabit, isn't it, when you glance at an alert on your phone telling you 250,000 people have now died from the coronavirus in the US, and you just continue going about your day," says Alam from his Brooklyn home. "It betrays the fact that you aren't ever really thinking about the world as a whole, you're thinking about your own personal space and stake inside of that. It's selfish and animal, in a way, which is a tough thing to reconcile.
"We all do it, though, and I'm not saying we shouldn't experience joy and pleasure in life. But it's getting harder and harder to turn away from inconvenient truths about the world – and perhaps the coronavirus can actually be that lever for talking about all these other issues."
What Leave the World Behind does so well is tap into our unease and insecurity about the present and the future. It explores racial identity and our dependence on technology, too, and because it stubbornly declines to illuminate the nature of the disaster in full, the reader ends up projecting on to the narrative the scenario that would most frighten him or her. Alam's novel is supremely, deliberately unsettling in that way.
“There is a way in which the book looks like a thriller or a horror novel,” he explains. It could, too, also be a middleclass novel of manners, a crime drama, or a satire on parenting and middle age. “It follows all of those conventions to a point,” he agrees. “But the satisfaction of an ending or an answer in those genres is not something I wanted for this book. In the real world, you’re not going to get Poirot gathering characters together in the drawing room and explaining everything; in reality, you don’t know the ending and, you know, that should frighten us.”
Alam admits, too, that one of the animating energies of the book was his fears for the future of his own children. So the horror and emotional resonance is not so much in what will happen to the satisfied adults who have enjoyed well-appointed existences. It’s how Archie and Rose, with their whole lives ahead of them, will cope in whatever the new reality is.
“For me, my children are the lens through which I see the world and I can’t help that,” he says. “The act of becoming a father was an act of wholesale change, of giving over my vanity, ego and fears to two other people. It’s a strange rewiring of your brain, a remarkable one.
“So thinking about the children in the book is chilling because it’s the horror of our reality. We’re witnessing a change in the global climate, so what kind of world will our children have to make? We don’t know the answer to that question. This is the very thing many politically engaged young people are talking about right now. It’s not theoretical to them, it’s actual. And that’s very scary.”
All of which might make Leave the World Behind seem grim, nihilistic even. Far from it. There is huge entertainment, in the suspense of what might happen next, black comedy and gentle satire. It's not a surprise that it's been optioned for a major Netflix film directed by Sam Esmail – the creator of hit drama Mr Robot – but it'll be fascinating to see how they deal with a line in the book that likens GH to Denzel Washington … given Washington is actually playing him.
"I privately really hope they are able to preserve that joke, but it's hard to know how it would work. There's poetry in the idea Denzel will be involved in this project, and Sam has such an appreciation for the territory of this book, of uncomfortable, possibly irresolvable problems. It'll be interesting to see how he can reconcile the book into the very different expectations of a medium that expects answers. But if anyone can do it, Sam can."
At least Alam does allow a small act of mercy at the very end, and he likens that inkling of hope to the relief he felt when Joe Biden won the US election.
So is Leave the World Behind a warning, a plea, to observe, listen and act? As GH points out in the book: No one could plead ignorance that was not wilful. You didn't have to scrutinise the curve to know; you didn't even have to read the papers because our phones reminded us many times precisely how bad things had got.
“Well, I’d be careful not to assume that I had any power of persuasion over a readership,” says Alam. “I simply wanted to look straight at the thing most of us spend a lot of time looking away from.”
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
More coverage from the Future Forum
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Henderson, Johnstone, Pickford, Ramsdale
Defenders Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Coady, Godfrey, James, Maguire, Mings, Shaw, Stones, Trippier, Walker, White
Midfielders Bellingham, Henderson, Lingard, Mount, Phillips, Rice, Ward-Prowse
Forwards Calvert-Lewin, Foden, Grealish, Greenwood, Kane, Rashford, Saka, Sancho, Sterling, Watkins
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
