About the Book
The exhilarating new novel from the author of Leave the World Behind – ‘the book of an era’ (Independent)
‘Expertly observed’ GUARDIAN
‘A slow-burn tale of connivance and deceit with a knockout ending’ OBSERVER
‘An engrossing exploration of the pitfalls of privilege and philanthropy’ SPECTATOR
Money talks. But what if it lies?
An ambitious young Black woman, plotting her way into the world of the one percent.
An old white billionaire, facing his own extinction.
He’s attracted to her intelligence, her refusal to be deferential, maybe also her Blackness.
She’s drawn to his power and money – and his apparent willingness to share both with her.
But how far is each prepared to go to get what they think they deserve?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a biting tale for our new gilded age.
*A GUARDIAN HIGHLIGHT FOR 2024*
Praise for Leave the World Behind
‘Alam is a worthy descendant of Don DeLillo’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘A book that could have been tailor-made for our times’ THE TIMES
‘Intense, incisive, I loved this’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘I was hooked from the opening pages’ CLARE MACKINTOSH
About the Author :
Rumaan Alam is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of the novels Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother and Leave the World Behind, which was an international bestseller, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Orwell Prize, and adapted for a major motion picture in 2023 starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali. Alam’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Bookforum and New Republic, where he is a contributing editor. He studied writing at Oberlin College and lives in New York with his family.
Review :
Alam is scathingly funny ... Entitlement invites comparison to Edith Warton’s House of Mirth and Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar ... Books of this calibre transcend personal experience. I barrelled through – propelled by its wit and unshakeable dread – and promptly read it again. Only then could I luxuriate in its tautness. Mundane conversations distil into dazzling singsong and the whole is expertly held together by its narrator’s sly interjections. Its stylishness belies discipline, for not a word is wasted. Like New York, it will linger despite its apparently cavalier air
The eagerly awaited follow-up to Alam’s brilliant Leave the World Behind, which was made into a Netflix movie by the Obamas, is a searing look at race and class
Alam knows how to develop a character, measuring each stage in Brooke’s corruption carefully against the constants of family and friends. He is also a superb writer about New York, Brooke’s sweaty subway journeys being a particular highlight. And his technique of parachuting into other characters’ points of view – a hallmark of Leave the World Behind – remains a brilliant way of energising dialogue scenes
Alam’s well-honed instinct to endow Brooke with a selfishness that could give any Ottessa Moshfegh protagonist a run for her money – a statement issued here with sincere admiration ... Alam’s writing is never more brilliant than when it ridicules corporate America ...The sort of shrewd, propulsive read the word “zeitgeisty” ought to be reserved for
Written with Alam’s customary alertness to how small details ... can reveal a whole life, Entitlement is an engrossing exploration of the pitfalls of privilege and philanthropy
With his slow-building drama and carefully drawn characters, Alam makes clear he is writing fiction rather than creating content ... Artfully, Alam presents Brooke as neither a victim nor a do-gooder, making her instead more selfish than selfless, more prickly than pricked
Rumaan Alam is a rarity ... It feels like the setup of a familiar drama about workplace power and its abuses, but Alam has something more interesting in mind ... Entitlement – a psychological thriller that subtly turns into a vicious exposé of affluent liberalism – also sneaks up on you, and wins you over
Alam’s writing is loose-limbed, expertly observed, flying along with the engine of a commercial novel and the fine eye of a literary one
Alam’s observation of the attitudes and trappings of contemporary upper-middle-class American life has a delicious precision. His shopping lists are as vivid as poems
Masterfully examines morality, privilege, identity and societal tension. Alam’s sharp, observant prose unpacks the complexities of modern life, particularly the intersections of race, class and power … Thought-provoking commentary and richly drawn characters. No one does uncomfortable truths about contemporary America like Alam, who holds a mirror up to our times, the endless ambition, desperation for wealth and consumer culture that underpins it all
In many ways, Entitlement is nothing like Alam’s revered 2020 disaster novel, Leave the World Behind ... There is no apocalypse, for starters. But look a little closer and it’s all there: the incisive interrogation of class, race, money, society; the breathtaking plot and the beautiful writing; the way it makes you feel uncomfortable, but look at the world around you anew
Clever and engrossing, the novels builds slowly to a dramatic finish
A nervy social drama eyeing the complex contours of prejudice ... A slow-burn tale of connivance and deceit with a knockout ending
An uneasy, intriguing probing of want, need, freedom and race
Entitlement is needle-sharp: discomfiting, disquieting, mesmerising. Alam taps deep into the greed and ambition that make us human, and that make us miserable’
A quick-witted, daring, beautifully composed novel – deeply knowing and full of wonder
Rumaan Alam’s writing is vivid and gorgeous. This is a book that I loved, in part because it feels forbidden, centring on that taboo subject which is ‘other people’s money’. Peeking in on the lifestyles of the uber wealthy is a favourite pastime of mine and here Rumaan Alam offers that up in droves but not only that, the chance to peek into their souls … Alam is expert at subtly detailing Brooke’s sometimes loneliness as she exercises social mobility, a longing for a sense of self-hood and identity that perhaps is the secret fuel that propels her ambition. I cannot recommend this book enough, I truly devoured it and enjoyed every second
These characters, their money and their morality come together in an absolutely devastating thunderclap
Should come with an undertow warning ... I was pulled under. Rumaan Alam has mastered that eerie moment when an ordinary gesture has the potential for disaster
Held me spellbound from its evocative opening to its startling, audacious last pages
Reading Entitlement felt like having a vise slowly tightened around my heart ... Elegant, precise and devastating
