Rumaan Alam is an American and Bangladeshi writer and critic. He is the author of three novels: “Rich and Pretty” (2016), “That Kind of Mother” (2018), and “Leave the World Behind” (2020). He was the editor of special projects at The New York Times Book Review.
Rumaan Alam grew up in an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. His parents moved there from Bangladesh in the ’70s in pursuit of higher education and stable life. Rumaan knew from a young age that he wanted to be a writer. At nine years old, he began reading Agatha Christie, Robert Ludlum, and Tom Clancy.
He studied creative writing at Oberlin College where began work on a novel about a rich white woman studying at a midwestern liberal-arts college. This narrative became the basis for his debut book.
Graduating from Oberlin, he moved to New York City. Here he began working at Condé Nast as an assistant to the editor of Lucky magazine in 2000. Later his writing appeared in The New York Times, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, Buzzfeed, and elsewhere.
His most notable book “Leave the World Behind” is a thriller, a dystopian page-turner, taking in themes of isolation, race, and class. Netflix has snapped it up, with Sam Esmail directing and Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington set to star.
His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Wigleaf, Juked, Necessary Fiction, Pank, The Literarian, and others.
Among his favorite authors he names Anita Brookner and Jennifer Egan. “I aspire to be like Egan, and then find myself writing like Brookner”, he says.
Rumaan Alam currently lives in New York with his family. He is the father of two boys.
Photo credit: www.rumaanalam.com
