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

Creative and Fascinating

I loved every second of this audiobook. The idea behind it is so creative and new, I never knew what would come next. The rapture was a concept I had never thought much about, but now I can't stop thinking about it. Not that I'm expecting the real thing, but I think there are so many parallels to be made to real life tragedies. Perrotta did a great job exploring how we realistically cope with loss even in the most unrealistic of circumstances. Worth noting that I didn't find it depressing even though it deals with so many heavy topics.

...for tomorrow we die.

The leftover characters are as you might imagine.
Aside from a few cleverly written passages, I might have nothing good to say about this sad, opinionated bit.
I cannot decide if I want to finish the last few chapters.

Mixed Reactions to This One

I really, really enjoyed the narrator of this audio book and, for a while, I really enjoyed the story. Perotta is a talented writer, and his writing flows wonderfully. But Perotta's tale never really stops its descent into darkness, and after a while it all becomes too much. I hoped for some redemption, some shred of hope, some sense of movement for these characters, but it never came.

Some good moments, but unsatisfying overall

I have enjoyed Tom Perotta's other work and I found many of the same qualities I enjoyed in his other works here - moments of wry humor, deeply flawed but compelling characters, and well crafted prose. However interesting the premise, I found the overall work unsatisfying. The story came to a somewhat abrupt end that gave me the feeling that the writer simply didn't know how to end it gracefully.

The narrator did a good job and this passed the time on a long car trip well, but I found this book a bit dissapointing.

What if you dissappeared?

Firstly, I am a fan of Tom Perrota, so I was excited about this novel and open to the premise. I was impressed by the simplicity of his introduction of the premise; metaphysics without being deeply, dramatically metaphysical. Alternatively, the premise could have been an excuse to take a science fiction approach. Perotta simply accepts the premise, and we get to watch the charters develop as they live in a topsy-turvy world.

As always, Perotta's characters are real, flawed and imperfect. We get to know their internal life without the writing becoming thick.

One of the markers of an enjoyable read/listen is that I think about aspects of the book long after its over (much like any other work of art). The Leftovers passes this test in flying colors, as I have found its premise to become an active metaphor for part of life that we rarely allow oureslves to consider

Has Heart and Humor

Found the story started slowly, then grew on me. At first, you're introduced into a different world and get to know a number of characters. As you're getting used to the different world, you get to know the characters better, and you care about them as they close in on their destiny.

Perrotta's a gifted, funny writer, and here he's exploring loss on a big scale, but it's the same kind of loss we experience in real life. If there's a takeaway, it may that readers who can buy in and suspend disbelief finish the work with an ability to deal with loss more felicitously than before.

Thought provoking story

To enjoy this book you have to either not have watched the TV series, or have the mental ability to detach yourself from the TV series and not compare the two...
The small screen adaptation was great by all measures, but the novel has hidden depths that I enjoyed. The narration was flawless.

great book bad voice actor

this book was great but the narrator voice actor is so annoying and very hard to listen to for ten hours

Pretty Disappointed

I watched the HBO series before reading the book, which I thought maybe had tainted my perception of the novel.

But upon further reflection, the characters in the novel are just bland and ultimately not beleiveable. They interact with each other in mundane ways, hardly getting upset with each other or having any sort of revelations or epiphanies as to how they are feeling (or not feeling).

I believe the book underdelivered and the HBO series highlights just how much more depth there was to this story. I could sit here and go through the differences to show what I mean, but to anyone who finds my review...if this book's concept interests you, don't allow the novel to deter you from watching the series. I beleive the series is one of the best out there.

Extremely average book

Extremely average book. Really nothing else to say, the story wasn't really engaging, the plot was thin, and ultimately there wasn't really anything to walk away with. Narration was probably the best thing about this book.