‘Leave the World Behind’ or, as it could have been called, ‘2020: The Novel’ is a remarkably prescient work, one that seems to bottle these “unprecedented” times we’re living through. I’m sure we’ve all felt the hopelessness and confusion of being stuck at home this year, watching from afar as the world goes to hell, not really sure what is going on, who to trust or why there are flamingos in the garden pool.

Alam manages to evoke much of the paranoia and discomfort of 2020 in this taut and seductive thriller. Apocalyptic overtones, racial tension, botched holiday plans, it’s all here, but the novel is more than an epochal distillation. It stands alone as a deeply unsettling exploration of human behaviour in the face of crisis, and as a searing condemnation of our reliance on technology, as well as on our blind faith in the facades of human society and our illusory roles within it. When the strangers turn up, when the phones go dead, when the end seems nigh, who are we really? And how do we cope?

The prose, though initially jarring, is silky and suspenseful, at times almost invasively intimate and, at others, deceptively enigmatic. The narrative voice always knows more than its characters, dropping sly hints and tidbits, often undermining the mistruths spoken, but never fully aligning itself with readers either, keeping us in the dark too. It hops about in perspective and style, contributing to the pervasive unease that Alam cultivates so well.

All of this coalesces into a provocative, page-turning thriller, one that beguiles and enchants all the way to its inevitably divisive denouement. There is some truly stunning imagery that lingers long after the final word and a haunting sense that Alam is absolutely, worryingly on to something here