The Leftovers (2011)

The Leftovers is a 2011 satirical supernatural novel by American author Tom Perrotta. Set in the aftermath of a Rapture-like event in which 2% of Earth's human population vanished into thin air, it chronicles the lives of several individuals from a small New York town attempting to adjust to the significant cultural shift brought about by the event, while also navigating their personal trauma and losses.

A television adaptation, co-created by Perrotta and Damon Lindelof, was produced for HBO, and ran for three seasons from June 29, 2014 to June 4, 2017. It garnered critical acclaim and has grown a dedicated cult following over the years.

Plot

Years after a rapture-like event in which millions of people in the world vanish without explanation, the citizens of Mapleton still struggle to cope with the massive loss and resulting culture shift.

Kevin, patriarch of the Garvey family, is a prominent local businessman enjoying early retirement during the event. Afterwards, he is compelled to run for mayor of Mapleton to replace the psychologically compromised incumbent. Kevin stresses the importance of returning to normal as a way for everyone to cope, through initiatives like survivors’ mixers and adult recreation leagues. Another major policy of his tenure is easing tension between the town and the Guilty Remnant (GR) an ascetic religious group that aims to provoke people into remembering the losses of the event and how meaningless life is. Following a violent conflict between police and the GR, Kevin has taken a hands-off approach to their existence, preferring to ignore them.

Kevin’s wife leaves him to join the Guilty Remnant and he struggles to balance raising his daughter while respecting her privacy in dealing with the event and the breakdown of the Garvey family. He also finds he cannot sustain new relationships with women after a few failed attempts, until he has a new one with Nora Durst. A local celebrity of sorts in Mapleton after losing her husband and both children in the event. Nora suffers a depressive episode: obsessively watching her children’s favorite TV show, avoiding the holidays and riding her bike for hours at a time. Nora is dealt a further blow when the town pastor, who has become a muckraking amateur journalist to reconcile how the event may have invalidated his beliefs, publishes a tract that reveals Nora's disappeared husband had an affair with her children's preschool teacher, who is still around.

Kevin and Nora connect at a mixer after Nora confronts her former husband's mistress. Nora finds she has more sympathy than she expected with the teacher over a shared frustration at her husband’s emotional distance and manipulation. Nora pursues Kevin, who is hesitant, but impulsively agrees to take a trip to Florida with her. Afterwards, they settle into a relationship, but Nora is bothered that she does not feel like the ‘good girlfriend’ she was always proud of being in college. Their relationship falls apart on Valentine's Day, when Kevin breaks a convention of their arrangement by sharing personal feelings about his family, which upsets Nora. She leaves him at the restaurant when he goes to the restroom.

Kevin is served divorce papers by his wife, and realizes that his daughter is in danger of not graduating high school. He has fallen into a domestic routine with his daughter's friend, Aimee, who has been living with them, as they drink coffee together in the morning before they both go to work. Kevin, alarmed at an increasing flirtation between them, resolves to avoid being alone with Aimee. The Spring softball league begins, and even though his team is short-handed Kevin plays anyway. He finds satisfaction in the game and his ability to handle a fly ball, even in adverse conditions.

Nora decides to leave Mapleton and adopt a new identity. She bleaches her hair but finds difficult to shed her identity when time comes to sell her house. She writes a letter to Kevin, explaining why she ran from him, and admitting ambivalence towards her family the exact moment they disappeared, which had been a source of her guilt and anger. Opting to hand-deliver the letter instead of mailing it, Nora discovers an infant left on the Garvey doorstep, instantly bonding with the child just as Kevin returns from his game.

Laurie, Kevin's wife, is a new recruit of the Guilty Remnant, which she was initially skeptical of but joins after her best friend does. The GR are mute, wear all white, must always smoke in public, and stage silent confrontations with the people of Mapleton. Their aim is to remind everyone that they have been left behind after the event, and prevent any return to the status quo. After Laurie's integration into the group, she is assigned a much younger trainee, Meg. Less emotionally stable than Laurie, Meg frequently remembers the wedding she had been planning before joining the GR. The two form a friendship as they perform their GR duties, following hounding the townspeople and confronting people from their former lives. Meg in particular must confront her former fiancé, whom she is distressed to learn has begun new relationships and seems to have resumed his old life. Laurie is asked to serve Kevin divorce papers to get half the family assets – the means by which the GR can afford to maintain operations. At Christmas, Meg and Laurie visit Kevin, who treats them like regular holiday visitors. Before they leave, he gives Laurie the gift their daughter left for her: a lighter. Moved, Laurie uses the lighter once, but then must throw it away to adhere to the tenets of the GR.