The Leftovers (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Tom Perrotta |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
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Publication date
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August 30, 2011 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pp |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | "The Abstinence Teacher" |
The Leftovers is a 2011 novel by American author Tom Perrotta chronicling life on earth after a rapture-like event takes some and leaves others behind. The billions left behind are all touched by the loss of loved ones in the "Sudden Departure," compounded by the significant social and philosophical concerns and implications of what it means to be left behind, when others were chosen.
A television adaptation premiered on HBO on June 29, 2014.
Several years after a rapture-like event in which millions of people world-wide suddenly vanish without explanation, the citizens of Mapleton, Ohio are still struggling to cope with the massive loss and resulting culture shift. The story is told episodically, revolving around the four members of the Garvey family, who have each begun an unlikely relationship following the event.
Kevin Garvey – The patriarch of the Garvey family, Kevin is a prominent local businessman enjoying early retirement during the event. Afterwards, he is compelled to run for mayor of Mapleton to replace the psychologically compromised incumbent. Kevin stresses the importance of returning to normality as a way for the survivors to cope through initiatives like survivor’s mixers and adult recreation leagues. The other major policy of his tenure in office is an effort to ease tension between the town and the Guilty Remnant (GR), an ascetic religious group that aims to provoke people into remembering the losses of the event and how meaningless life is. Following a violent conflict between police and the GR, Kevin has taken a hands off approach to their existence, preferring to ignore them entirely.
Kevin’s wife leaves him to join the Guilty Remnant and he struggles to balance raising his daughter actively with respecting her privacy while she deals with the event and the breaking up of the Garvey family. He also finds he is unable to sustain new relationships with women, making a few failed attempts. Kevin develops a relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who has become quasi famous in Mapleton for losing her husband and both children in the event. Nora suffers a major depressive episode following the loss of her family, obsessively watching her children’s favorite TV show, avoiding the holidays, and riding her bike for hours at a time. Nora is dealt a further blow when the town pastor, who has become a muckraking amateur journalist to reconcile how the event may have invalidated his own beliefs, publishes a tract that reveals Nora’s husband had been carrying on an affair with her children’s much younger preschool teacher.
Kevin and Nora connect at a mixer after Nora confronts her former husband’s mistress. Nora finds she has more sympathy than she expected with the woman over their mutual frustration with her husband’s emotional distance and manipulation. Nora pursues Kevin, who is hesitant, but impulsively agrees to take a trip to Florida with her. Afterwards they settle into a relationship, but Nora is bothered that she does not feel like the ‘good girlfriend’ she was always proud of being in college. Their burgeoning relationship falls apart on Valentine’s Day when Kevin breaks one of the conventions of their arrangement by sharing personal feelings about his family, which makes Nora uncomfortable. She leaves him at the restaurant when he goes to the restroom.
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