The Leftovers

By: Tom Perrotta

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers—now adapted into an HBO series—is a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.

What if—whoosh, right now, with no explanation—a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?

That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened—not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children.

Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011
A USA Today 10 Books We Loved Reading in 2011 Title
One of NPR's 10 Best Novels of 2011

©2011 St. Martin's Press (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Dennis Boutsikaris executes this production with a matter-of-fact tone that works to emphasize the surrealism that permeates Perrotta's novel…Boutsikaris does well providing a straight vocal rendering of the details of Perrotta's world while amply delivering emotional resonance and energy when portraying the characters' states of mind. He keeps his voices and tones straight despite the shifting of perspective from chapter to chapter.” —AudioFile Magazine

“Dennis Boutsikaris is the ideal audio jack-of-all trades for Perrotta's darkly comic novel of American life after the rapture. Boutsikaris captures the tender longing of Perrotta's prose as it harks back to a lost happiness now entirely destroyed by the unexplained disappearance of millions of people, both believers and nonbelievers. Utilizing the mellow timbre of his voice and effective moments of silence, Boutsikaris highlights the disconnection and dissatisfaction at the heart of Perrotta's novel. Proving to be a superb narrator for Perrotta's work, Boutsikaris's quiet excellence is akin to that of the author.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[Perrotta's] most mature, absorbing novel, one that confirms his development from a funnyman to a daring chronicler of our most profound anxieties and human desires...Leavened with humor and tinged with creepiness, this insightful novel draws us into some very dark corners of the human psyche.” —Washington Post

Concept

Concept is interesting .. watched show first and loved it.. wish there were more books .. felt like it ended too soon

All Most Perfect

Would you consider the audio edition of The Leftovers to be better than the print version?

yes

Who was your favorite character and why?

did not have a favorite

Have you listened to any of Dennis Boutsikaris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

first time

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

neither

Any additional comments?

I liked the book. It kept my attention until the end when I felt as though the author had gotten tired of writing and just ended, kind of taking the easy way out. The ending left me feeling like a leftover.

Looking forward to the HBO series

Would you listen to The Leftovers again? Why?

Yes! There were a lot of characters and story lines and at times it was difficult to keep them all in line.

What did you like best about this story?

Oddly enough, I liked all the storylines and the way they all were linked together.

Which scene was your favorite?

There were a lot of good scenes

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It did neither but it did make me think what I would be like if this scenario happened to me.

Any additional comments?

It was a good book and I would recommend it to others.

So Conflicted

What did I like? The concept. Not your typical apocalypse book. The guilty remanent is clearly based off of the watchers in the book of revelations and his interpretation is awesome.

What did I not like? I can’t even figure it out. I really wanted to love this book. It have such good potential and I really want to continue the series but I got bored! It was so slow and didn’t even start to get good until the end. The author said that it was supposed to be a little comical. I did not get that vibe at all!
Just an observation, I feel like the author wrote this book to become a TV series.
Overall I would probably recommend the book but not with much excitement. And I am wondering for the first time ever with the TV series is better than the book....

Highly enjoyable

The performance was great. The story was great. Loved the references to Westchester and the surrounding areas (like the mention of Rutgers, Binghamton, and Syracuse).

Not the Best

This is my second Perrotta book, and it left me feeling disappointed. There just wasn't much of a plot. Just little snippets of lives. There were a lot of narrators, and that can be jarring in an audiobook.

The narrator had a bit of a monotone. I don't think his voice fit this novel, especially since there were so many female characters.

A little disappointed

After having watched the HBO adaptation of this novel I was greatly looking forward to hearing the novel. As the novel progressed, I kept waiting for it to get better and better but I found that it didn’t. Typically the novel is much better than the film adaptation but in this case I didn’t find that to be true. It’s not that this is a bad novel but HBO did send a fantastic job (especially with the first season) that the novel itself pales in comparison.

loved the show loved the book

I enjoyed seeing how the characters I love were created. the story is strong and reader is great

Jo

love the story concept in emotion in the writing, along with the cliffhanger at the end this story has me ready for te next one!

Great Concept

On the plus side, this is a great concept and well written. Narration was good. I did enjoy certain parts of the book very much. On the other hand, the story didn't consistently hit the same note (comedy, tragedy?) and sort of meandered along (slowly) until...it was over. I felt a little more enlightened about the whole point after listening to an interview with the author, but not enough to wholeheartedly recommend the book.