Rumaan Alam

The author of four novels, Rumaan Alam achieved widespread acclaim with Leave the World Behind, a New York Times bestseller, Read with Jenna pick, and finalist for the National Book Award, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Orwell Prize. The novel was adapted into a global hit Netflix film produced by Higher Ground and starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, and Kevin Bacon.

His latest novel, Entitlement, is a provocative exploration of money, morality, race, and the seductive power of wealth in America’s new gilded age. Entitlement examines philanthropy, capitalism, and the belief systems that underpin money itself. The novel is both a compulsive read and a sharp novel of ideas; an indictment of the billionaire class and a piercing exploration of what we owe one another.

Alam’s fiction is celebrated for its psychological precision, social insight, and suspenseful elegance. As The New York Times noted of Leave the World Behind, its power “comes from its suspenseful elusiveness; you never quite know what the author is up to.” Across his work—including Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother—Alam examines class, privilege, and family, crafting complex characters navigating a flawed and unequal world. His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and elsewhere.

As a speaker, Rumaan Alam brings candor and cultural insight to conversations with universities, libraries, and community audiences. Drawing on his acclaimed novels and essays, he explores themes of race, class, capitalism, family, and the craft of fiction. Equally at ease discussing literary technique or the moral questions shaping contemporary America, Alam offers thought-provoking, accessible programs that spark lively discussion.

Born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the son of first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants, Alam studied literature at Oberlin College.

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