The Leftovers

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

Barking up the wrong tree

Any additional comments?

I was fascinated and enthralled by the HBO series “The Leftovers.” The show is dark, cerebral, and deals with penultimate questions of life after death. When the 2014 season ended without total closure, I raced to the novel to have all my questions answered. However, the novel is superficial and intellectually disappointing aside the HBO series. The Leftovers novel provides only the basic outline which is expertly filled by the created of the television show “Lost” (Damon Lindelof). There is little to be gained in the novel for fans of the HBO series.

Good concept, better adaptation

This is one of those rare cases were the adaptation to TV is better than the book itself. I'm not saying that the book is bad persé, but it does lack dept and analysis on the philosophical issues that the author exposed at the beginning. The TV adaptation does this and much more, in a few words, watch the HBO adaptation.

Good but way too short.

This is the first time this has ever happened to me. In my opinion, the show is far better than the book.

I think the shortness of the book was disappointing. The ending felt too soon, like he just got tired of writing so he ended it. He could've written so much more and what he did write was amazing but I hated how he ended it.

Book verses television

It was a bit strange reading this after having watched 2 seasons of the television series. It was different, but not in a bad way. I almost always enjoy the book more than a movie or television and this was no exception. I do like to put the TV characters in the roles as I am listening. Now I need a sequel

Gorgeous novel narrated gorgeously.

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

Yes. This is a very rare situation where I do believe the audio version could be just as good if not better than the print edition.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of the characters were wonderfully rendered, but I think I found Nora to be the most complex.

What does Dennis Boutsikaris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His inflection is superb; he's interesting to listen to without being over the top, and in that way he matches the writing itself.

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

No.