147: Rumaan Alam (LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND) and Lynn Steger Strong's WANT

In This Episode:

Rumaan Alam zooms into the online void paradox that is the Damn Library to talk about his new novel, Leave the World Behind. Grocery shopping, writing a glue trap, personal detail, hypertext, and careful language choices all populate a very far-ranging conversation that veers from teeth to AirBnB foibles. Plus, Rumaan brought along Want by Lynn Steger Strong and we talk about why it's like a ripe fruit, which opens up even further avenues,like literary friendships and books as dreams. It’s a big one!

The Ep. 147 Bookshelf

THIS EPISODE'S BOOKS:

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Want by Lynn Steger Strong

WHAT'D YOU BUY?:

Rumaan: Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar // Memorial by Bryan Washington // Self-Portrait by Celia Paul
Christopher: The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman // Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann (audiobook)
Drew: Know My Name by Chanel Miller

ALSO MENTIONED:

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman
The Sheep Detective Stories by Leonie Swann
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Dark Dark: Stories by Samantha Hunt
Rumaan Alam interviews Samantha Hunt for The Rumpus
”Swan Lake” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
The Da Vinci Code (annotated) by Dan Brown
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Mulholland Drive (2001, written & directed by David Lynch)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
the works of Ben Lener
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman
Marlena by Julie Buntin
Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza, trans. by Thomas Bunstead
Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
the works of Kevin Wilson
”Ghosteen” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2019)

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Rumaan: The Music of Leave the World Behind — including:
* “Designer” by Aldous Harding
* the music of Marlon Williams
* “Reward” by Kate LeBon
* “Bottle It In” by Kurt Vile
* "Lust for Life” by Lana Del Rey
* “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” by Bob Dylan
* “Truth is a Beautiful Thing” by London Grammar
* “Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest” by Bill Callahan
* Jessye Norman singing “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss
* “Push the Sky Away” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (particularly “Higgs Boson Blues”)
Drew: A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet // The Sundial by Shirley Jackson // The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
Christopher: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

The Damn Bar