The Leftovers

The Leftovers
Tom Perrotta

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.With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.

The Leftovers

Tom Perrotta

Copyright

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

London W6 8JB

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

First published in Australia in 2011 by HarperCollinsPublishers

Originally published in the United States in 2011 by St. Martin’s Press

THE LEFTOVERS. Copyright © Tom Perrotta 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Cover Art © 2014 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. HBO® is a service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.

The right of Tom Perrotta to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 9780007453092

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007453108

Version: 2014-06-30

Dedication

For Nina and Luke

Contents

Cover (#ulink_ceca4de4-5ebe-588c-834f-6db8e886c72c)

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Part One

Three-Year Anniversary

Heroes’ Day

A Whole Class of Jills

Special Someone

Part Two

Mapleton Means Fun

The Carpe Diem

Blue Ribbon

Vow of Silence

Get a Room

Part Three

Happy Holidays

Dirtbags

Snowflakes and Candy Canes

The Best Chair in the World

The Balzer Method

Part Four

Be My Valentine

A Better-Than-Average Girlfriend

The Outpost

Barefoot and Pregnant